Halo fanfic: Generation 2
by Sol 249
Summary: Second generation of spartans fight in an epic battle against the Covenant.
1. Chapter 1 through 13 the beggining suck

Halo Generation 2

Prologue

0206 hours, December 15, 2525 (Military Calendar)

New Mombassa, Earth, Shadow Glen

Andrew stared into the open field as his friends chased after a gravball the sun shined in his eyes as he scored goal after goal.

To Andrew life was all play, games he could play over and over again till he got bored and would decide to play with his holofigures. Life was always the same with no new challenges… it was always boring as well.

So when a black car pulled up and men in army uniforms pulled him and his friends into the car Andrew would soon find out life wasn't as easy as it seemed…

Chapter 1

0946 hours, December 16, 2525 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Destroyer Socrates/ Enubus System/ Transiting out of Slipspace

Andrew awoke with a start and he leapt out of his bed yelling. He vaguely remembered being injected with something. He checked his watch and found out it had been over seven hours since he had been kidnapped. Andrew looked around the room he was in and was shocked to see that the room was filled with beds… and in each bed was a kid who was unconscious. Andrew quickly counted the kids on each bed. _Ninety-nine_ Andrew thought. _What the heck is happening? _Andrew heard some noise coming from the other side of a door inside the room so he quickly jumped onto his bed and closed his eyes. Andrew opened his eyes a bit and vaguely saw two men in camouflage uniforms carry in another kid who, of course, was unconscious.

"Is that the last one?" One of the men asked.

"Yeah, that's the last one, I'm thirsty, let's get to the bar." The other guy growled.

When the two men left Andrew jumped out of his bed and looked outside the only window in the room.

He was in a ship. A rather small one, he could see the ship's armored hull which had words on it reading: **UNSC Socrates**. _So I'm on a navy ship _Andrew thought. He felt the ship slowly transit out of slipspace when he felt two hands grab his neck and pull him down. Andrew reached up, grabbed the assailant's neck and flipped the assailant over.

"What the crap are you doing!" Andrew yelled. His assailant, a dirty blond fellow seven year old girl, jumped to her feet.

"That's what I'm gonna ask you!" She replied.

"Well you don't just attack me! Haven't you watched _Larny the cybosaur! _Just ask me!" Andrew snapped.

"You are not my mother!" The girl snapped back. Andrew sighed angrily and sat down.

"Let's stop arguing, we are all in the same position anyways. I'm Andrew."

The girl pushed her hair away from her face.

"Right, I'm Monica." She replied.

"So…. Let's see if we can wake anyone else up." Andrew said.

"You're not the boss of me!" Monica roared….

1040 hours, December 16, 2525 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Destroyer Socrates/ Enubus System/ Landing on planet CintoIV / 2nd military planet

"This is starting to really piss me off!" Monica roared angrily.

"Take a chill pill." Said a newly awoken Kyle.

"Don't…ever…say…that...again." Andrew said.

"Okay…let's try to wake up everyone again." Evan said.

Suddenly the ship started vibrating, and then there was a large thump.

"Hell, the ship just docked." Evan said nervously.

"Crap! Everyone get to your beds!" Andrew yelled. Quickly everyone ran to their beds and pretended to be unconscious. The two army men entered the room holding one box each which was filled with injectors.

"So you jab these into each kid's neck?" One guy asked walking over to Kyle who looked pleadingly at the others.

"Yeah, jab it anywhere if you feel like it." The other guy replied. After this statement Kyle jumped up and ran screaming and yelling to the others.

"Hmph, well that saves us some wake up stims." One guy growled. "Anyone else who's pretending to be unconscious get up here and help us inject these things." It was no use to pretend still so the other three got up and spent a long half an hour injecting.

"Hey Andrew," Kyle whispered. "Look." Kyle pointed to one kid who hadn't been injected with a wake-up stimulant.

"That idiot Aaron? This is gonna be fun." Andrew replied. He walked over to Aaron and started jabbing his needle randomly over Aaron's face, who abruptly opened his eyes as red welts started peppering his face and started running around screaming "AAAAIIIIIIIeeeeeeee!"

"Hey you!" One of the army guys said. "Stop messing around!"

After everyone was awake the two guards herded the children into another room filled with chairs and a single stage. Andrew sat down next to Monica and looked up to the stage as a man walked up.

"My name is Chief Petty Officer Mendez, "The guy said. "But you kids will address me as sir from here on out… the reason? You all will be trained, in order to become the greatest soldiers in the UNSC… Spartans."

_Spartans? _Andrew thought heart pounding; he looked around the room and saw that most of the one-hundred kids were sitting up higher.

"Guards," Mendez said. "Take these _trainees_ to their bunks; they have a long day ahead of them…"

Chapter 2

0300 hours, December 16, 2525 (Military Calendar)

Camp Kirkbride/ Planet CintoIV/ Training

"Wake up trainee!" A voice yelled. Andrew yelled out in surprise waking from his deep slumber and saw a guy, who was one of the 100 spartan's trainers, standing there nostrils flaring.

"One second till compliance eh? Give me 20 trainee!" The trainer roared. After the 20 push-ups

the trainer roared, "Showers are aft, after you're done return here, get into these clothes," He motioned to a pair of matching grey sweats with Andrew-249 roughly stenciled on it. "And wait for further instructions, now get movin' double time!"

Andrew and the other 99 kids stumbled towards the showers and when everyone was done they slipped on their grey uniforms. Mendez walked in when everyone was ready and he herded the trainees onto a green patch of grass.

"First," Mendez said glaring at everyone. "You all will do 100 push-ups followed by 200 sit-ups then 100 more push-ups followed by 300 jumpin' jacks and anyone who doesn't comply will do 100 laps around this camp followed by double of what the others are goin' to do… is that clear trainees?" After a few seconds of non-compliance the trainers took out their tasers and mildly shocked each trainee who all yelped out and yelled, "Sir, yes sir!"

"Yeah, now follow my lead! And anyone who barfs makes everyone else do 100 more of everything each time!" Mendez chuckled…

After hours of kids barfing, the trainees finally finished their workout and everyone got a bottle of water which everyone drank ravenously. Soon after a few minutes rest Mendez roared, "Follow my lead! We're going to the classroom and it's a pretty short jog."

The "short" jog turned out to be almost 7 miles and by the time they made it to the classroom everyone was exhausted.

"You trainees get inside double-time! Or do you want 100 push-ups?" Mendez said with a glint in his eyes. When Andrew entered the classroom he saw Monica, Kyle, and Evan waving him to join them. The room was slightly dim and blissfully cool and was filled with tables and on each was a plate of salted crackers and a glass of milk in which everyone gobbled up in seconds. Andrew saw a holo-tank at the front of the room and wondered what it was for.

"So where's the friggin' teach?" Kyle muttered. Suddenly the holo-tank powered up and a holographic figure appeared on the top.

"Hello students, my name is Deja II and I am your teacher. "Whoa, an AI." Monica whispered.

"Look closely at this vid I'm about to show you please." Deja II said pleasantly.

The area in front of the holo-tank lighted up and little figures appeared. Andrew observed 300 soldiers guarding a bridge as over 1000 Persian troops rushed to the 300 soldier's positions. A tremendous battle took place; shields splintered, swords drew blood, and spears flew but in the end the remaining Persian infantry scattered and ran leaving the lone 300 victorious. The kids cheered and raved to see more. "Those 300 were the greatest soldiers of that time… they were called Spartans. Trained from age seven they were fast and powerful, even so they could defeat twice their amount of enemies. You all will become Spartans, and you will win every battle…" With that Deja II disappeared and the trainees were herded back out.

Mendez was waiting patiently outside and the moment he saw Andrew and the others he said, "O.k. trainees! It's a short jog back; let's move out… double time!"

Chapter 3

0800 hours, June 24, 2530 (Military Calendar)

Onboard the Socrates orbiting around CintoIV

The augmentation process was a big success… each Spartan now had enhanced speed, strength, and their minds worked faster than ever, yet the lives of 20 spartans were lost… and CPO Mendez. The deaths had nothing to do with the augmentation process because ONI section three had worked out the bugs. A military camera captured a rebel soldier setting a detonation device on augmentation lab no. 5 five minutes before the explosion on vid. Chief Mendez was simply walking by with a cup of coffee when he was caught in the explosion…. So many lives had been wasted. Andrew had always thought of Aaron and his friend's downfall but he hadn't anticipated this. Maybe they could've been killed by a covenant grunt… that certainly would've been hilarious.

"And so we commit the bodies of our fallen brothers to space…"

"That isn't necessarily true…" Kyle whispered. "I checked the Aaron's coffin to see if I could draw on his face but it was empty, only the Chief's coffin was occupied."

"Strange… we should check it out later." Monica replied. Andrew nodded in agreement and was about to say something when Evan ran up.

"Guess what? The Chief's will was found and every surviving spartan is to be promoted!" Evan said satisfaction thick in his voice. "Look…" Evan pointed to a man walking up the stage.

"CPO Mendez's will was found… and all the SPARTAN participants are to be promoted, Andrew-249… you now have tactical command of the spartan team, congratulations." The man said.

Andrew saluted as he was appointed Master Chief.

Soon after everyone had gotten their new ranks the spartans left the assembly hall.

"Lt. is still better than that sissy Master Chief rank." Evan crowed jealously. Andrew, Kyle, and Monica looked at him in disgust.

"You can never admit when you lose, and your stupid idea of how you can take out us three is also quite ridiculous." Monica nagged looking rather annoyed.

Andrew, getting annoyed by all the fighting broke in through Evan's retort saying…"C'mon, let's stop fighting so we can get to the gym, I bet a lot of things are gonna happen later…"

0800 hours, January 17, 2552 (Military Calendar)

En route to Mjolnir facility/ Planet CintoIV/ under attack by enemy forces

"Evan! Spray those grunts with lead, Kyle… where the heck are those rockets?" Andrew yelled over his COM. 27 Warthog ATVs rolled through a dirt road on their way to a Mjolnir facility to pick up their new Mjolnir armor.

"Hell yes sir!" Evan cried out, who was manning the LAG mounted on the warthog, and abruptly started spraying hails of bullets at a cluster of elites and grunts.

"What the… Kyle… HUNTERS!" Andrew yelled. Kyle quickly reloaded his M41 SSR rocket launcher and fired two 102mm shaped charges at the hunters. The fleet of warthogs drove through the plumes of smoke and pillars of fire for what seemed like hours when they finally made it to the Mjolnir facility.

A marine guarding the gate that led to the facility checked the spartan's IDs.

"Spartans…" He muttered. "Hurry, we don't have much time, the moment you get your armor we're evacuating so hurry!"

The spartans parked their warthogs outside a huge domed building and hurried inside. The technicians who were anxiously waiting for the spartans looked up and immediately saluted.

"At ease." Andrew said noticing they looked like everything but at ease. "So where's our armor?"

The technician took out a remote and pushed the single button on it. Behind him a door large enough to easily fit a scorpion tank opened revealing 80 suits of shining armor each customized to each spartan's liking.

"These new Mjolnir armor systems can temporarily create an overshield which triples the shielding of the armor. We have also made a few minor adjustments like faster shield generation, enhanced speed and strength, and of course a better motion tracker. Any questions?" The tech said. The spartans shuffled uneasily yet nobody said anything.

"O.k., Spartan-200, please take off your clothes and put on this gown, then follow me so we can install your armor." The tech said.

Soon everyone had their armor on and were busy testing them. Andrew, in his teal colored armor, ordered the spartans to line up. Andrew then walked over to the captain of the Socrates who was nervously pacing back and forth as a rumble was heard above.

"Sir!" Andrew saluted. "My team is now 110 percent ready, sir!"

"Good," he said "It's best we leave now. All personnel please board the Socrates… we are now evacuating."

Andrew entered his room onboard the Socrates and went to the view screen. A covenant fleet orbited the whole planet of CintoIV and abruptly they all opened fire. CintoIV's lush green forests and beautiful mountain ranges were turned to molten slag. The once peaceful planet was now only hell…

"_Boarding craft inbound… all units please go to station, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill." _The ship's AI said over the loudspeaker.

Andrew immediately contacted his team leaders over the COM. "Kyle, Evan, Monica, Cameron, Philip, Cody, Smith." Andrew said. "Get down to my place, its party time…"

Chapter 4

1200 hours, January 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Socrates/ Under attack by enemy forces

"Aye sir! I'll bring the gin, 283 out." Kyle said over the COM. Andrew then opened another channel to the rest of the spartans.

"Spartan-248, you're in charge of everyone else… get everyone to armory-C25 and hold your positions there. We'll come for you." He said. 248's acknowledgement light blinked twice as the team leaders filed in.

"Okay, we need to get to the main computer room, there's a special package waiting for us. So… what weapons have we got?" Andrew inquired. The spartans uncovered a series of M6C and M6D pistols, two battle rifles, two assault rifles and three SMGs. Andrew grabbed an assault rifle and a M6C magnum then he led the team leaders out the door.

"Let's stop by the armory on our way to the computer room, we might need the firepower." Andrew said. Seven acknowledgement lights blinked when the ship started to shake.

"_Boarding craft are latched. I repeat. Boarding craft are latched_._" _Said the Captain's voice over the loudspeakers.

"C'mon! We don't have much time!" Monica said. The team of spartans then made their way to the computer room…

1200 hours, January 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Socrates/ Under attack by enemy forces

"Boarding craft are latched. I repeat. Boarding craft are latched." The captain said over the loudspeakers.

"Lieutenant, get any other UNSC ship on the COM now!" The captain ordered.

"Sir! Our communications dish was destroyed when the first wave of seraphs attacked us." The lieutenant said.

"Damn! If we keep this up we're gonna' get overrun!" The captain replied. "How many alien bastards made it onboard?"

"Out of the 21 boarding craft and all the UNSC personnel's reports I say about 60 percent." The lieutenant replied.

"Okay…" The captain said. "Incoming boarding craft?"

"About 30 sir, our anti-air rotary cannons should take care of about half."

"I'm not taking any chances, in half an hour get all personnel in pelicans, and tell them to fly to the nearest UNSC ship."

"Aye sir…"

1210 hours, January 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Socrates/ Under attack by enemy forces

The dead hulks of three brutes slammed to the ground as the team of spartans made their way to the Central Computer Room. (CCR)

"_This is your captain speaking, in 30 minutes we're gonna' blow this top, head to the nearest escape_ _craft when the next wave of boarding craft lands, good luck people…" _A loudspeaker blared.

"Hell, we better get movin'." Cody said as they rounded a corridor.

"Right, we're almost there, wait, here's the armory!" Andrew said. Inside the armory were M90 shotguns, MA5B assault rifles, BR55 rifles, SMGs, a series of pistols, M41 SSR rocket launchers, S2 AM sniper rifles and crates of fragmentation grenades.

"I call shotgun." Someone murmured.

Minutes later eight heavily armed spartans were once again making their way to the CCR.

"Okay, we round this corner and…" What Andrew and the other spartans saw puzzled them all. The elites, grunts and hunters were fighting against the brutes, drones, and jackals.

"How the hell are we going to get past that?" Cody inquired.

"We do this…"Andrew said. "CHARGE!" He roared as the Spartans ran through fray spraying everything with lead.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?" Smith yelled.

"Oops, sorry…" Apologized Philip who, most likely did it on purpose. After the spartans had charged through the fray they started to pile up at the CCR door.

"Any UNSC personnel beyond this door please open this door! This is the Master Chief spartan-249 service number: Sprtn- 482942568. Please open this door!" Andrew yelled angrily over the COM. Suddenly the door opened and the spartans spilled in the CCR.

"Whoa." Evan said standing up as the door closed behind the spartans. Andrew stood up and looked around. There was no sign of a human anywhere except two dead techs.

"Hello spartans…" Said a disembodied voice behind them. Andrew spun around and saw that an AI appeared over a holo panel.

"AI-249000 Bastila?" Andrew asked.

"Yes Spartan-249, you've come for me I suppose?" Bastila replied.

"Yeah, load yourself into this computer chip and let's get movin'. I don't think we have much time."

"All UNSC personnel please get into an escape craft. It's time to self destruct…"

Chapter 5

1200 hours, January 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Socrates/ En route to armory C25/ Under attack by enemy forces

"All UNSC personnel please get into an escape craft. It's time to self destruct." The captain's voice said over the intercom. "Fail safe code in, countdown time to self destruction… ten minutes."

"Hell, it's best we get to a pelican." Monica said.

"That's command thinking, let's go. Bastila, find us the fastest route to armory C25, and hurry." Andrew said.

"Processing…. Done! Follow the nav point and it'll lead you to the armory." Bastila replied. "Nine minutes till countdown."

"Acknowledged, let's go everyone!" Andrew said leading the team of Spartans to the armory. Suddenly two hunters led by a white elite, who was clutching an energy sword, turned the corner.

"Wort wort wort!" The elite roared and it immediately activated its energy sword.

"Overshields everyone!" Andrew yelled. "Grenades, on my mark… MARK!" The spartans lobbed fragmentation grenades at the aliens and immediately started spraying them with bullets. The frags detonated and started to spray shrapnel all over the corridor yet the aliens still stood.

"WORT!" The elite roared as it's shields recharged and it started to charge. Behind the elite, the hunters fired their fuel rod cannons and two overlapping beams of plasma impacted on the spartans.

Monica, Cameron, Smith, and Cody jumped out of the way just in time narrowly dodging the beams just in time, Andrew and the others, however, got a full blast and were blasted down the corridor.

"Damnit! Kyle, Smith, fall back and cover us. Evan, Philip, Monica, spray those hunters with lead. Cody, Cameron, try to flank them. I'll take care of mister swordy." Andrew yelled over the COM channel. "GO! GO! GO!" Andrew sprinted forward as fast as he could closely followed by Cameron and Cody narrowly avoiding the fuel rods the hunters fired. A trio of bullets impacted on the brownish area of one hunter which howled in pain. Kyle and Smith had them covered. The three spartans jumped over the hunters, and in unison Monica, Philip, and Evan started to spray the hunters with overlapping fields of fire. Cody and Cameron turned and started to spray lead with their assault rifles on the hunter's unprotected backs who turned around and got hit again on their backs except this time the bullets came from the other spartans. Both hunters finally started to charge raising their shields and roaring their battle cries but were intermediately put down by a hail of bullets.

"Yeah! Now let's go help Andrew." Kyle said, but suddenly a large group of grunts rounded a corridor.

The spartans looked at each other in surprise and raised their weapons….

"Eat this!" Andrew roared as he lobbed a plasma grenade at the white elite. The moment the grenade latched onto the elite it howled and started to sprint towards the Spartan, who was most likely trying to give the "Hug of death." Luckily the grenade detonated and the elite flew to the other side of the corridor. Yet its shields still held.

"Damn!" Andrew cursed when he saw that the elite was still alive. The elite's energy sword had discharged an enormous amount of energy and failed so it brandished a weapon not encountered by the UNSC. It looked roughly like a beam rifle mixed with a carbine and a plasma rifle yet it seemed to have a distinct air of power around it… a rather nasty surprise. The weapon started to whine and spat out three defined beams of concentrated plasma. The first beam hit Andrew strait on and the beam exploded, which knocked out Andrew's overshield. Andrew leapt to the side narrowly avoiding the other two beams.

"Bastila… how the hell do those beams concentrate that much firepower?" Andrew said squeezing off full auto with his assault rifle.

"Jump to the side! Okay… it seems so that the plasma charges up at the tip of the beam which seems to store up energy the way a plasma pistol can overcharge. If it can knock out your overshield that easily it should be able to slice through one meter of titanium alloy." Bastila replied through Andrew's helmet speakers. Energy started to build up at the tip of the gun and it discharged narrowly slicing the air behind Andrew. The elite wanted to take Andrew out from afar, so Andrew did what it didn't expect… he charged towards the elite. Andrew grabbed a convenient plasma pistol nearby and charged it. Normally plasma pistols were rather weak, yet when you charge it, it could knock out any infantry shield, including overshields.

"Prepare to DIE!" Andrew yelled, and he fired the plasma pistol which knocked out the elite's shield instantly. Andrew then landed overlapping blows of punches and kicks on the elite… which finally slumped down to the deck… turned into mush. Behind Andrew the other spartans, holding a group of grunts prisoners, arrived to inspect Andrew's work.

"Very nice…" Evan said slowly as he stuck his middle finger up at the dead elite. A couple of grunts behind them tried to stick their middle fingers up too.

"Three minutes till countdown…" A voice said on a loudspeaker.

"Holy shit! We better get moving!" Kyle yelled. Once again the spartans made their long journey to armory SPRTN….

Chapter 6

1212 hours, January 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Socrates/ Armory SPRTN (A.K.A Armory C25)

As Andrew, the other spartans, and the grunt prisoners entered the armory he noticed that it was rather crowded, wounded were leaning on the walls and cloning fluid covered the floor. Andrew spotted Spartan-248 among a crowd of spartans and immediately called her over.

"Everyone here?" Andrew asked her quietly. The Spartan looked at Andrew visor to visor and said.

"We got about four wounded and…" 248 paused. "Three KIA." Andrew looked away, shocked at the idea that three of his spartans were dead, and they had barely worn their new armor for more than a day. He pulled up his team roster and listed Spartans 201, 298, and 276 KIA.

"Spartan-249? Get everybody down to the hangar bay ASAP, the captain out." Said the captain over the COM.

"Okay, everybody, follow my lead!" Andrew yelled motioning to the hangar bay doors. The humans entered the hangar and lined up in a single file line.

"Captain on deck!" Andrew saluted noticing five huge pelicans among the other four smaller pelicans.

Catching Andrew's gaze the captain said. "Like em'? These babies are called pelican 2s, first one out in their class, but that's not why all of you are here. As soon all you guys leave I'm gonna' blow this ship… stopping the covenant onboard. The UNSC cruiser called the Olympus is holding their position about 1000 miles from here. In these pelicans you must get on that ship no matter what. I'm… the fail safe for the operation, we need someone to stay behind and activate the self destruct sequence and I'm the guy." Just then a huge explosion shook the decks below them.

"Bastila… report." Andrew said.

"The covenant has broken the doors protecting the navigation room. They might be able to retrieve the nav data. Advise immediate self destruction." Bastila replied.

"That's it, Master Chief… good luck..." The captain said as he shook Andrew's hand. With that he strode off to an elevator…

0400 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

On Earth's orbital defense platform: The Pyroshark/ Earth/ Sol system

Andrew and the other spartans entered the hangar bay as a crowd of marines waited to great them.

"Sir, I'm Commander Corbec, please follow me." Said a Latino dressed in a navy uniform, Andrew had seen him onboard the Socrates, he was motioning to a huge elevator, guarded by two marines. Andrew and the other 77 spartans followed obediently and the elevator elevated up for a couple of seconds. Outside, another crowd of humans awaited them, all wearing naval brass uniforms and looking like they just got a new fountain of beer.

"Hello Master Chief, I'm Admiral Clark, the awards ceremony is about to begin. Make yourself at home." A tall American said. Andrew saw that the Admiral had almost every medal made except the prisoner of war award.

"Uh… with all due respect, what award ceremony are we talking about sir?" Andrew said after his spartans all gave him a quizzical tilt of their helmets.

"Well… now that you have your armor you are now official spartans, therefore, as well as everyone's bravery at the battle on the Socrates, you all are to be awarded. All except… you!" Clark said pointing accusingly at Evan. "On your mission vid we caught you drinking alcohol in the armory! You are hereby downgraded to corporal!"

"What!" Evan yelled in shock. "It was only one gallon!"

"You want me to downgrade you again?" Clark said. Evan jerked angrily and walked to the back of the crowd. Monica chuckled.

Soon the spartans each had many medals awarded to them and finally Commander Corbec stepped up.

"For saving the lives of 24 spartans… you are hereby ranked Captain." The admiral said. "Please meet me in the debriefing room." Andrew and the others applauded and went to the debriefing room.

"Admiral," Bastila said appearing on a holotank. "You better see this."

Andrew vaguely heard the admiral say: "What the hell… a dozen ships? That's not even an eighth of the fleet that attacked Reach."

"Sir, boarding craft inbound." Bastila said.

"Damnit! All fighter personnel please get to battle stations. Spartan-249… we need you to send half your team to the neighboring orbital station Mechwar20. The fight for Earth has just begun…"

Section II: The Rare Spartan

Chapter 7

0410 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

On Earth's orbital defense platform: Cairo Station / Earth/ Sol system

Humanity's reaction to the first battle of Earth was surprisingly quick, thanks to Spartan-117 Master Chief, who had warned Earth right before the covenant would come.

"Steady… they're latched!" Said a crewman, onboard the Cairo. "They're in standard formation, little bastards in front big ones in back, good luck Cairo." The Master Chief aimed his dual wielded SMGs at a blast door.

"Feel the fire on that door!" Sergeant Johnson said, "The moment they come through, let em' have it!" Soon the door exploded and a team of grunts and two elites entered the room. The Master Chief opened fire with his SMGs and cut the grunts down like butter. The sergeant, who was manning a turret above a stairway, easily knocked out the elite's shields. Afterwards two marines converged on them.

"Now I really should start counting." A marine chirped. Soon two identical waves of covenant came… after dealing with those, two elites dual wielding plasma pistols came down from a walkway above the door. Now dual wielding a plasma rifle and an SMG, the Master Chief fired his weapons simultaneously finally bringing both of the aliens down.

"Move move move!" Johnson yelled, and he waved the humans forward. Shouldering a battle rifle the Master Chief followed obediently and came across another group of Covenant who were being besieged by a hail of bullets coming from a marine's portable turret.. The Master Chief fired a flurry of three round bursts from his BR55 taking down three grunts and a single red elite… the rest were cleaned off by the marines.

"Chief, we'll hold our positions here and wait for reinforcements. Get on to the hangar bays… and quickly!" Johnson said grinning. The Chief nodded and proceeded up a staircase behind the turret and entered a room overlooking another room with potted plants dotted around it. Two marines, fighting and cursing, were being besieged by a huge team of elites and grunts. The Master Chief immediately aimed his battle rifle and started picking off the grunts. The marines, seeing that someone had came to save them, started to work on the elites.

"Chief, thanks for the assistance!" One marine piped up. The Chief nodded went on ahead…

As the last grunt dropped dead in the first hangar the marines walked over to the windows.

"Hey! They're leaving the Malta!" A marine yelled rather surprisingly.

"Malta, what's your status?" Cortana said.

"I don't believe it! They're retreating, we won!" Yelled a rather happy marine. Just then the Malta exploded.

"This is bad…" An Australian marine started when the other door leading to the hangar bay blew up.

"Chief! Grab those bagpipes and play "The love train!" A marine screamed. The Chief ran to the bagpipes but just before he reached them a bunny popped up and…

"This is bad…" An Australian marine started when the other door leading to the hangar bay blew up.

Soon a crowd of Covenant made their way into the hangar bay through the broken door and immediately started to open fire.

"Grenade!" A marine private yelled and he tossed it into the fray killing off about 4 grunts and one elite.

"Watch out!" The Master Chief yelled as a grunt threw a plasma grenade. The private ran towards the covenant screaming, "I'm too pretty to die!" as the grenade latched on to him and demolished the rest of the covenant with his final act. The Chief went through a short hallway littered with dead marines and entered the next hangar. Two marines were cowering behind a box as two grunts on the walkway above manning plasma turrets rained plasma down at them. The Master Chief aimed his battle rifle and shot both grunts in the head.

One marine saw the Chief and said, "Chief, could you kill all those things? That would really be awesome." Further in the hangar a dropship was latched in a window and black ops elites and grunts were filing out.

"You two, throw as many grenades as you have, then give them everything you got." The spartan said.

"Yes sir!" The marines saluted. The Master Chief immediately sprinted forward lobbing all his grenades combined with the marine's grenades at the crowd. Overlapping explosions filled that area of the hangar, soon out of the haze, two white elites emerged. Their shields were slowly recharging and in their three fingered hands were energy swords. One elite lunged at the Chief roaring it's battle cry. The Chief ducked narrowly dodging the sword, then he primed two plasma grenades and stuck them both on the elite's chest.

"IiiiiiEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee!" The elite screamed and was cut off when the grenades detonated. The Master Chief looked around and saw that the second elite had been sneaking around when the Master Chief was occupied… the two marines lay dead, their throats slit. The elite lunged at the Chief and sliced through the Chief's energy shielding with the energy sword. The Chief cursed as his shields overloaded and failed narrowly dodging another slash from the energy sword. The Master Chief looked down and saw two plasma grenades at the elite's feet… perfect. The Chief leapt into the air and chucked a fragmentation grenade at the elite's feet… and it disappeared behind a huge blue-white explosion.

"Uh oh… they're leaving the Athens!" Cortana said, shortly after the station blew up.

"Cortana, assessment." Admiral Hood said through the COM.

"That explosion came from inside the Athens, as well as the Malta, the covenant must have brought something with them… a bomb."

"If they did they sure as well have brought one here… Chief, find it…"

The Master Chief and Cortana rode an elevator up to the area where a he crowd of elites were… and the bomb.

"There are quite a few elites guarding the bomb, you might need to get creative." Cortana said. The Chief raised his two SMGs and entered the bomb room and saw about six high ranking elites guarding a huge spiky black thing… which was the bomb. The Master Chief snuck around the crowd and lashed out from the shadows using the butt of his gun to break the spine of one elite. Shortly after the mangled corpse hit the ground the other elites opened fire and spread out. The spartan jumped out of the way of the hail of boiling plasma and started to spray the elites with bullets. Three of the elites fell down, dead, while the two surviving elites ran for cover. One elite had crouched behind a box yet its head was still visible… a huge tactical mistake. The Master Chief stuck the elite's head with a plasma grenade and ran out of the grenade's blast radius as the elite blew up. The other elite charged out from its hiding spot and started to charge forward, roaring for the Chief's blood.

"Oh no you don't!" The Chief grunted. He quickly sidestepped, elbowed the elite's back and started to land overlapping punches. Soon the elite's mangled body slammed to the ground… dead.

"Chief, me, inside your head, now!" Cortana demanded appearing on a holo-tank nearby. The Chief reached out, placed his hand on the tank, and sprinted to the bomb. Cortana reappeared on the bomb, her arms crossed.

"How much time was left?" The Chief asked.

"You don't want to know." Cortana replied.

Just then the COM channel opened, "Chief, have you got to the bomb yet?" Admiral Hood said anxiously.

"We have." Cortana said casually.

"Sir, permission to leave the station." The Chief said.

"For what reason?"

"To give something back to the Covenant." The Chief replied.

The admiral sighed and, after a moment pause, said, "Granted…"

Chapter 8

0500 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Crash landed in Old Mombassa/ Earth/ Sol system

"If you can hear me, please blink twice." Cortana said worriedly through the Master Chief's helmet speakers.

"Yes I can hear you, you talk too much." The Chief replied.

Cortana started to make an angry retort when Sergeant Johnson yelled, "Shake it off marines! Clear the crash site, go go go!" The Chief looked around and immediately remembered that a huge, bug-like, covenant ground vehicle had attacked the squad of three pelicans. Behind the Chief was the crash site, the pelican had crashed right through an old, war torn building. The spartan found an SMG lying near a dead marine, took the time to close the marine's eyes, and entered a doorway in which three marines and Sergeant Johnson were waiting.

"You go in first, we'll cover you." Johnson grunted to the Chief and motioned him in.

Everything was quiet in the short hallway when a lone grunt entered the opposite door, with one look at the great spartan the grunt squeaked in fright and tried to run back when the Chief's SMG landed at the back of the grunt's head.

"Let's tango you alien bastards!" A Mexican marine cheered and immediately ran through the door in which the grunt came through. There was a light amount of opposition in the large courtyard, a couple of jackals and a trio of grunts, but as the Master Chief entered an inner courtyard a large standard squad of two elites and a handful of grunts rushed down the stairs to meet him.

"Marines! Grenades on my mark! MARK!" The Master Chief bellowed.

"Aye sir!" A marine yelled back as he tossed two fragmentation grenades into the inner courtyard. The grenades detonated and the screams of the grunts and the elites filled the area.

"If they didn't know that we are here, they sure do now!" Johnson grinned. The Master Chief nodded, it was the time for war…

0500 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Orbital Defense platform: The Pyroshark/ Earth/ Sol system

Andrew and his team stood victorious inside the Pyroshark. The bomb was safely disarmed and used to destroy a covenant carrier… as for the boarders, they were either slaughtered or held prisoner, the vast majority of them however, had fled. They hadn't, however, had any word from Cameron, Philip Kyle and Cody, who led the defense of the Mechwar20.

"Bastila, what's your status?" Admiral Corbec said over the COM.

"55 percent of the boarders have been either neutralized or captured… we're still picking off stragglers, as for the Mechwar20-" Bastila said but was abruptly cut off when a large covenant carrier rammed straight into the neighboring station… the Mechwar20. Andrew's COM channel opened and screams of pain could be heard… then there was silence.

"CAMERON! KYLE! PHILIP! CODY! What's your status?" Andrew screamed over the COM but there was only static. Monica, Smith, and Evan walked over to the spartan on the bloodstained hangar bay, apparently recovering through there shock.

"C'mon Andrew… we need to get moving." Monica said, her voice cold and bitter.

"Half the number of spartans had been on that platform… but some spartans should've survived… processing… life signs detected! But that carrier is rebooting, there's a ten minute duration till it's once again fully functional… but once it's functional it'll blast right through the Mechwar20's remains, killing off any survivor." Bastila murmured coldly. "You could board the remains of the orbital platform… but that would be very risky."

"Then that's a risk I'm willing to take. Admiral… permission to leave the station." Andrew said slowly.

Admiral Clark sighed over the COM and finally said, "Permission granted."

Monica's hand placed itself on Andrew's shoulder and she finally said strongly, "Hey, Andrew. We're coming too." They were going to rescue some spartans…

Kyle, Cameron, Philip, and Cody and 17 other spartans slowly emerged from the wreckage of the Mechwar20 after the covenant carrier crashed straight into the station. Kyle observed the area and immediately found out that no human, except the spartans, could've survived. Even though some of the station was still intact the atmosphere would've vented already, and with no supply of oxygen…

"Sir! Ranger elites are coming this way… maybe they're checking for survivors." A spartan said, pointing to a swarm of irregular shaped dots in the distance.

"We better get moving then, Cody, you lead ten others, do your best to defend the area. Everybody else check for supplies, survivors, anything that would help." Kyle barked.

Philip drifted over to Kyle and said, "No survivors, I've checked… neither human nor alien."

Kyle started to reply when he noticed that the carrier's engines flickered for a split second.

"Uh oh… they're rebooting! New objective spartans! Find as much explosions as possible so we can blast through this carrier's hull! Let's go spartans!"

"Sir… we got company..." Cody whispered as about 50 ranger elites drifted closer.

"Give em' hell." Kyle said. With that Cody grabbed a rocket launcher and loaded a SPACE 102mm rocket into it. He then expertly fired it into the mass of elites and took out about half their number, the other ten spartans then sprayed the rangers with lead.

"Watch out! More covenant, and they've got energy swords!" A spartan screamed.

Meanwhile Cameron and Philip had encased an area of the carrier's hull with explosives, flammable objects, and archer missile pods.

"All spartans fall back! I repeat, fall BACK!" Kyle yelled over the COM. Obediently the spartans regrouped and took cover.

"Let's take you all down to hell." Kyle said and he then detonated the explosives.

0506 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Orbital Defense platform remains/ Earth/ Sol system

"What the hell was that?" Evan yelled as a huge fiery explosion overtook an area of the carrier.

"Bastila… let's get into that carrier." Andrew said. "Through the hangar bay let's go!"

"That's suicidal! The hangar's shields will knock us back!" Bastila exclaimed incredulously.

"Fire all the pelican's missiles, and then follow with a salvo of WASP heavy bullets."

"Aye, I sure hope you know what you're doing…"

A plume of fiery explosions dotted the hangar bay shields followed by a hail of sniper-like WASP heavy bullets… then the hangar's shields faded.

"Full speed ahead Bastila." Andrew said calmly and then exchanged high fives with the others.

"Get ready, this is gonna be a rough landing…"

Chapter 9

0508 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Orbital Defense platform remains/ Earth/ Sol system

Ando Mormoslee emerged from the embers of the human station's remains. The last he remembered was a huge fiery explosion and then the elite had blacked out.

"By the prophets…" The elite murmured as he looked around. The burnt remains of his brethren lay all around him; his best friend; Osama Binladen lay dead next to him, there was no sign of the Demons… suddenly Ando saw movement not far from his position.

"Owie!" A voice coughed and a grunt, a single grunt, emerged from the ashes.

"By the prophets… a single grunt?" Ando asked questionably.

"That's Yim Yam to you big gold superior elite!" The grunt snapped. The grunt then activated its jetpack and it floated into space, "Yim Yam sees that big elite aren't so tough after all!"

"Silence!" Ando commanded. "These demons have killed my brothers… and for that they must DIE!" Yim Yam cocked his head in puzzlement.

"Um… I shall kill every demon I can find." Ando said.

"Ooooh!" Yim Yam said finally understanding, "But first big elite and Yim Yam must get inside big carrier so elite and Yim Yam won't get cooked by big scary engines." Ando nodded in agreement and opened a secret entrance in the ship's hull not knowing that he was going to be stuck with the grunt for a very long time…

0510 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / Earth/ Sol system

Kyle and the surviving spartans ran through the mazelike halls killing anything in their path after punching a hole into the carrier's hull.

"Philip, locate the ship's armory and their detention block." Kyle commanded. Philip, who was the team's computer specialist, took out his portable datapad and hacked into the ship's system.

"There, the ship's detention block is not too far from here, the armory is not far from there." Philip replied after ten seconds.

"Good job, Cody, Cameron, go on ahead and clear a path to the detention block, take 5 spartans with you." Kyle said.

"Aye sir! You lot! Follow me!" Cody muttered. After Cody and his 5 spartans left Kyle sent everybody else to find a good place to set up an HQ.

"Sir? Why don't we just raid the hangar bay and steal a dropship?" A spartan asked followed by mutters of agreement.

"I'll show you, Philip, show them the hangar bay camera." Kyle said. Philip nodded and a projection popped up from the datapad; the projection showed an army of grunts, elites, drones, jackals, and brutes.

"Nevermind…"

Cody and Cameron lead their team of five en route to the detention block. They only ran into a few stray grunts and jackals and on one encounter; a pair of brutes.

"Um… is this way to easy or what?" Cameron said as he swept the hallway with his assault rifle.

"Yeah… to-" Cody replied but was cut off as the ran into a group of ten brutes guarding the detention block… including a captain.

"WROARRRR!" The brute captain roared and they immediately opened fire.

"Assault rifles up first battle rifles back them up! Alpha formation… move move move!" Cameron roared over the COM. The spartans obeyed and formed two lines… first line were kneeled down the second line was standing up and soon the area was filled with exchange fire. Cody vaulted high up in the air and jabbed a combat knife into a brute's neck; he then pushed the dead brute into another brute… Cameron then shoved a fragmentation grenade into the brute's protesting mouth and the aliens, after three seconds, blew up taking two other brutes with them.

"Sir! The brute captain is beserking!" A spartan screamed. It was true; being the last of its team the captain forgot all means of defense and went on a rampage.

"Gorph!" A spartan moaned after getting thrashed by the brute, then he fell down… dead.

"Open fire!" Cody yelled desperately. All spartans opened fire but the brute still didn't die… until Cameron threw two combat knifes into the brute's leg and finally finished off when Cody jammed another knife into the brute's forehead. Dead bodies littered the area… two spartans amongst them.

"C'mon… we gotta get inside the detention block…"

0510 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / Earth/ Sol system

"Oooggg…" Andrew groaned rubbing the back of his helmet.

"Everyone alright?" Monica said anxiously.

"Yeah, and what the…" Evan said as he looked around. Blue, purple, and brown blood smeared the hangar floor… and dead Covenant littered the area. The pelican's remains were everywhere, and the spartans were on the other side of the hangar Smith was looking out the hangar window.

"Bastila what-" Andrew started.

"Happened? The hangar's shields closed on us… when the pelican landed you and the others exited the pelican… when it blew up. You all have been unconscious since."

"Great… our weapons are melted as well… and we only have our pistols, I guess we have to use Covenant junk then." Andrew muttered. After the four spartans had scooped up the weapons of their liking the hangar suddenly started to vibrate.

"We're MOVING!" Smith shouted. "Wait a sec…" Suddenly the window showed pitch black space.

"Guys… we're in slipspace…"

Chapter 10

0510 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / Slipspace

The elite commander in his majestic gold armor turned around as Ando Mormoslee, in his new silver armor, entered the Fabled Prophecy's bridge.

"Commander… you have returned, what happened to your squad?" The elite commander asked anxiously.

"Murdered… by the Demons." Ando replied looking down. "They have managed to board this ship by the way."

"Yes… I have heard of resistance in the lower levels… and a human dropship had exploded in the main hangar bay." The commander replied.

"Were there any-"

"No survivors were reported."

"By the prophets…" Ando was burdened by the idea that at least 100 of his brothers had been killed… because of the demons…

"I shall rid this carrier of those human filths at this very instant!" Ando suddenly replied slamming his fist down on a control panel.

The commander nodded and said, "Yes, we shall see… I shall assign a squad of golden ops elites grunts, and jackals to your command. Do not fail again… who knows what the Hierarchs would do to you…"

Yim Yam paced nervously back and forth as he waited to be introduced to his new commander.

"Pi Pi can't stand Yim Yam walking around like jackal any longer!" A grunt said after fifteen minutes.

"Eh?" A jackal said nearby.

"Sorry! Yim Yam nervous after Yim Yam's last mission… what if it's the same honor proud elite Yim Yam ran into that's going to be our new commander?" Replied Yim Yam anxiously.

"All elites are stupidly honor proud silly!" Pi Pi laughed.

"Eh?" A nearby elite said. Suddenly the opposite door made a beeping sound and all the grunts, jackals, and elites immediately stood in a row. The door finally opened and two elites emerged. One was the commander of the Fabled Prophecy, the other…

"Eeep! Hide Yim Yam!" Yim Yam squeaked as he hid his face with his arms as all cowardly grunts did when faced against a superior enemy.

"20 grunts, 10 jackals, and five elites, all trained in High Charity itself, you wouldn't be able to find any finer squad. As for transportation, we have two customized dropships in the spec hangar awaiting your approval." The commander said proudly.

"Hmmm… and the grunts?" Ando asked thoughtfully.

"All golden ops grunt members are trained not to grunt out when faced against a superior enemy."

"Hehe… we shall see." Ando sneered sinisterly; he then lashed out his energy sword. Yim Yam gulped; he didn't fully complete his golden ops training, because of the war against the humans he graduated early, and right now he was rather jumpy. Yim Yam wanted to pass this initialization so he could make his deceased grandpa proud. Ando Mormoslee walked over to the first grunt in line and asked, "What is your name?"

"Li Lie… sir!" The grunt squeaked and saluted like a midget commando. Suddenly Ando lashed his energy sword out and… stopped the blade from making contact to the grunt… centimeters from its face, yet the grunt didn't even blink.

"Hmmm… very good… let's hope the others will do just as well." Ando nodded approvingly. Yim Yam made a silent squeal of fright and started to sway in one spot.

After 19 more grunts passed the test Yim Yam was the last to go up.

"You!" Ando snarled. "We'll see if you're so tough now! Haw haw!" Ando started to pace back and forth, back and forth; suddenly he slashed his energy sword and stopped it a millimeter away from Yim Yam's neck.

"Hmmm excellent, I expect to see a lot from you." Ando said. He then walked off.

"WE DID IT!" Pi Pi cheered, he then slapped Yim Yam on the back. Yim Yam fell down and from that Pi Pi concluded that Yim Yam had fainted….

Chapter 11

0550 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / Slipspace

Kyle and his team of spartans cautiously entered the detention block and aimed their weapons… there was nothing in the large room.

"Spartans?" A voice said from one of the cells, "Thank god! I though we were doomed!" The marine's F.O.F. tag registered him as Corporal Manglerez.

"No problem, where's your squad leader?" Kyle asked.

"Er… I am. Sergeant Samuel had led us on mission to guard an entry tunnel in New Mombassa, then an army of covenant arrived and we started fighting." Many emotions were shown on his face, pain, anger, confusion… "We were captured… the sarge tried to make a break for it but a sniper got to him."

"Sir! We've got 24 marines ready to fight!" Cameron shouted.

"What about those other prison cells?" Kyle asked curiously.

"They're those covenant Jackals… and by the looks of it, they've gone insane."

"Shoot them… they're makin' too much noise, as well they're damn ugly."

Cameron grinned, "Yes sir!"

"Sir… I've searched for the nearest room to set up an HQ… and this is the best place to make a stand." Philip said.

"Perfect. O.K…. are those jackals dead?" Kyle shouted.

"Yes sir!" Cameron replied.

"Good… open those cells and get those bodies outta here, they don't add too much to the décor."

"Right! You guys! Help me get them outta here." Three marines stumbled over to Cameron and hastily picked up the dead bodies.

"O.K…. now we need to get to the armory and get some ammunition, Cameron! Cody! You, the marines, and four other spartans are on base defense, everyone else… you're with me!" Kyle ordered.

"Yes sir!" Everyone shouted.

"Damn right! Now let's move out!"

0555 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / Slipspace

After several minutes Kyle, Philip, and the team of spartans had finally arrived at the armory where they found not only Covenant weapons and portable turrets, but also human weapons and two portable turrets.

"This must be those brute's armory…" Philip muttered.

"Well that explains why they have UNSC weapons. Well? What are you guys waiting for? Let's bring this stuff back to HQ!" Kyle said. The spartans hastily obeyed and started to grab the nearest weapon they could find.

"Sir, I found some Lotus anti-infantry type mines!" A spartan shouted.

"Great! We'll put them to great use… and be sure to bring those marine helmets and that military type tape back while you are at it." The spartan tilted his head quizzically but nonetheless obeyed.

Soon the human's HQ was heavily protected. The entrance had makeshift barriers, covenant and human, covering every area around it. If the covenant makeshift barriers overloaded then the humans would be able to fall back behind the human barriers… and just to add a little extra firepower Kyle had ordered some marines to set up four plasma turrets and one of the two human turrets in between the barriers. They also had a portion of the human's plentiful ammunition taped to the back of the human makeshift barriers.

Inside the HQ plasma turrets had been set up at the front of each prison cell… the second human turret had been set up near the end of the room, if the covenant were to enter the room they were going to enter a meat grinder. In each prison cell there were tables, on top of each table was ammunition and weapons, covenant and human alike. Makeshift barriers, of course, were carefully placed throughout the room so they wouldn't get in the way of the turrets.

"Sir, I think we are loaded and are ready to go!" Corporal Manglerez reported.

"Good… because I think we'll need to be…" Kyle said. Meanwhile Ando Mormoslee and his team had run into Andrew and the others…

0600 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / Slipspace

Andrew gazed hopelessly as one of golden elites drew out its energy sword, the other gold elites aimed their dual-wielded plasma rifles, the gold armored grunts aimed their plasma rifles and pistols, and as the golden shielded jackals aimed their carbines. Andrew accessed the idea that locked in a close quarters corridor armed with only human and covenant pistols, plasma rifles, covenant carbines, and a couple of grenades. The only good news was that the corridor was small… so small that all the enemies wouldn't be able to open fire at the same time.

"Monica… run!" Andrew whispered.

Monica looked at him incredulously and said, "What?"

"We won't be able to win this battle… find Kyle and the others. QUICKLY!"

"What? No… no… I won-"

"That's an order." Andrew finally said.

"Right… I will." Monica stammered, and with that, she ran down the corridor.

"Wort wort wort!" The first golden elite cried, and then it led the other elites forward.

"Open fire!" Andrew yelled and his long charged up plasma pistol discharged knocking out one of the elite's shields. The first elite however had ran right in front of the spartans.

"I got him…" Evan grunted and he landed a blow… right next to the elite… where there was nothing but air. Andrew was distracted for a split second at the incredulous idea of Evan missing a punch at point blank when a plasma rifle slammed onto his head knocking out his shield… moments later, after two more blows, Andrew slumped to the ground… unconscious.

"Huh… ANDREW!" Evan yelled. He then stuck a plasma grenade on the assailant and straight punched the elite… this time he didn't miss. However, the elite leading the gold armored team used its energy sword to knock out Evan's shields followed by two quick blows by another elite… and Evan also fell to the ground unconscious. Meanwhile Smith was being restrained by two elites and couldn't do anything as he and his teammates were taken away…

Chapter 12

0630 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Bridge/ Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / Exiting Slipspace

Ando Mormoslee entered the Command Center obviously outraged.

"Commander, why was I to capture the demons instead of slaughtering them all? They have shed our brother's blood an-"

"Yes, yes… I had received new orders to capture the demon filth instead of slaughtering them from the prophets themselves." Interrupted the Commander, who was nodding in agreement, "Apparently they want to learn more about the demons, and copy their shield system."

"Wait… but our shield system came from the Forerunners themselves, the humans cannot have-"

"Created a better shield system? Apparently so…"

"Well, at least the Golden operations team performed quite well. Although not everyone had a role, in the capture of the demons."

"Commander, exiting slipspace…" Squeaked a grunt in the command crew. The ship started to rumble and the next thing everyone saw was a sight to behold…

"By the prophets… can it be?" The commander murmured, awestruck.

Ando Mormoslee was just dumbfounded… he had fought against the humans on the ring world before… "Halo…" Ando whispered.

0500 hours, July 22 (Military Calendar)

Control Room canyon, Installation 04, Halo

Three human dropships flew over the snowy canyon and finally landed just under an old bridge supported by some unknown energy beams. A covenant mortar tank was launching blue comet-like mortar bombs as the pelicans unloaded its passengers. One pelican had a single scorpion tank attached to its tail and the other two pelicans had two warthogs attached to them, one on its belly one on its tail. Together an army of 36 marines dropped out of the ships and got inside their vehicles. The seven marines left without a vehicle, however, opened fire on small group of covenant that had come seeing the enemy dropships. The four warthogs and the single scorpion drove further down the canyon spraying lead and cannon fire everywhere. Soon they were out of sight.

Ando Mormoslee saw the human vehicles rush past him and ordered two banshees and a trio of ghosts to engage. He knew quite well that they wouldn't last long but they would hopefully knock out the tank, or buy them time. The grunts, jackals and elites surrounding Ando started to cheer as a wraith scored a direct hit on one of the retreating human dropships, which plummeted further down the canyon.

"Watch out!" A grunt squealed and soon later a rocket flashed by killing a jackal and five grunts.

"Stand down!" Ando thundered as the grunts started to run in circles, the elite then aimed his beam rifle at the humans. A human sniper bullet cut past the elite but he didn't flinch. Ando pulled the trigger and soon the sniper went down… followed by two other marines wielding a rocket launcher and an assault rifle.

"Commander, the human vehicles have broken through our defense line… they have now joined up with four other human warthogs and are now on their way to the cavern room. The good news is that their tank was neutralized." Said an elite.

"Excellent… and the dropship? Was there any survivors?" Ando replied.

"Yes your Excellency… our forces are dealing with them this very moment." Above them an explosion was heard on the bridge.

"Ready my dropship sergeant."

"Yes your Excellency." The elite murmured.

In the large canyon not far from where the humans had landed, the humans were making a break for it.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" Three marines screamed as their warthog took a direct hit from a mortar.

"Holy shit! Get us outta here corporal!" The company leader shouted.

"Hell yes, sir!" The corporal agreed, he then pushed on the gas and told the rest of the team to follow him. Down a tunnel there was a very big surprise waiting for the humans…

"Hunters!" The corporal screamed.

"Run 'em over NOW!" Screamed the company leader looking grim. But the hunters jumped out of the way as the surviving seven warthogs drove through. After going through a long tunnel they soon entered a cavern-like room where two warthogs got hit by some fuel rods. Their inhabitants, however, survived. But the other warthogs drove on and exited through the opposite door, completely abandoning the six marines.

"Hunters!" A marine cried hopelessly as two more hunters emerged from the shadows. The marines hopelessly opened fire on the hunters… and their fate was sealed.

Ando's dropship landed in the large valley in which the control room was concealed and… after finishing his cup of tea… he-

Ando's dropship landed in the large valley in which the control room was concealed just as three marines entered the valley as well. The valley's defense hadn't been set up yet so the construction grunts were no matched for the battle hardened marines.

Ando snarled as the marines made their way to the pyramid-like structure where the control room rested and told the pilot to land the dropship right in front of the three marines. The marines stopped walking and looked on hopelessly as the dropship landed. It could've killed them right then and there. But the hatch opened up and a single gold armored elite exited bearing a plasma rifle.

"Open fire!" The corporal shouted… obviously wanting dear revenge for the company leader's death. The assault rifle armor piercing rounds barely glanced off Ando's shields as he primed a plasma grenade and threw it… right at the three marines. Having no time to run, the grenade detonated and the marines were thrown back.

"Marines!" The corporal cried, "Open your eyes, snap outta it!" After a couple of seconds of sobbing the human looked up and stared at the elite like he was never there. The human then said something, crying as he got up he picked up his assault rifle and… got killed moments later…

0615 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside the carrier: The Fabled Prophecy / In Orbit above Halo

Monica snaked her fiber optic probe around the corner and saw Andrew, Smith, and Evan being dragged away. The gold elite who led the squad squatted down and placed the single dead elite's arms on its chest. Then it walked away. Monica got up from her hiding spot and found a covenant carbine lying on the ground. She then took an M6C magnum pistol and sidearmed it along with four plasma grenades. After getting as much ammo she could find for her carbine she ran to the part of the ship where she saw an explosion. The area was filled with covenant engineers who were sealing the hole. The engineers ignored her as she walked through to examine the hole. It was definitely a Cameron-Philip explosion because there was a smiley face near blast hole… a mark they always left when the exploded something. Walking forward she saw signs that the team of spartans had went through the corridor on her left… purple blood was faintly smeared on the floor and there was ash allover the place. Monica smile to herself… being the frontline scout of the team, her tracking abilities were the best. She soon went onward.

Kyle was sitting behind the makeshift barriers sleeping when Cody woke him up.

"Huh? What is it?" Kyle asked. Cody pointed to the corridor they had came from and made walking motions with his fingers. Kyle nodded and aimed his shotgun as his COM channel opened.

"You like bread, so don't shoot me." Monica said. It was a secret code they always said whenever they approached another spartan who was unaware of the others presence. Kyle lowered his shotgun and saw Monica emerge from the corridor.

"Uh… hi, um… how'd you get here?" Kyle asked.

"Andrew, Evan, Smith and I came here on a pelican to find you… Andrew and the others have been captured! We need to rescue them!" Monica said quickly.

"Right… Cameron, Cody, Philip… let's go…"

Section III: Installation 05

Chapter 13

1200 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

High Charity/ Council Chamber

The Master Chief reappeared in the council chamber onboard the High Charity. The wavering bands of golden light disappeared and the Master Chief observed his surroundings. For a moment the two remaining Prophets, the brute honor guards, and the grunts just stared dumbstruck at the Master Chief.

"Boo." The Master Chief said shortly at a nearby grunt. Throwing its needler into the air, the grunt cried out and ran towards a nearby door.

"Where's your friend going?" The Chief mocked catching the needler and aimed it at the prophets.

"Slay the demon!" The prophet of Regret ordered. He then went down on a lift.

The honor guards and the grunts however, stayed, and aimed their weapons at the Master Chief.

The Master Chief stepped back and picked up another needler. Now dual wielding needlers, the Master Chief ran straight forward and fired a flurry of exploding needles at his enemies. Brutes and grunts exploded, boiling energy filled the air, and after finishing off a brute using his newly acquired covenant carbine Cortana finally said, "Put me inside one of the pedestals near the door, it'll be easier if I stay in the Covenant network and track the Prophet of Regret."

The Master Chief obeyed and entered the door aiming his carbine. Two brutes and four grunts, one manning a plasma turret, opened fire the moment they saw the Chief. Shields flaring, the Master Chief threw a plasma grenade at the plasma turret and fired wildly at the brutes. The grenade exploded.

A single brute emerged from the explosion and it started to berserk. Knowingly, the Master Chief leapt into the air and fired his Covenant carbine at the brute. After successive headshots the beast finally slammed to the ground… dead. After taking a moment to rest and find ammo, the spartan headed through the door and ran face to face with a brute honor guard.

"Graaawwl!" It roared. The beast then fired its brute plasma rifle at the Master Chief, behind them two jackals and three grunts were taking their positions…

One grunt lobbed a plasma grenade at the Chief but he ducked… and the plasma grenade landed on the brute. Ignoring the brute's scream of pain and the huge explosion, the Master Chief landed many carbine rounds on the jackals and grunts… right before two gunner grunts holding portable plasma turrets arrived, and a brute captain.

"Watch out! That brute captain is holding a brute shot!" Cortana warned. The Master Chief had encountered that weapon before… and it had caused the death of one of is teammates. The ballistic weapon spat out a grenade and it detonated near the Chief. Even so, the Master Chief's shields drained to half. Emerging from his cover, the spartan lobbed a plasma grenade at the grunts and aimed his carbine at the brute captain's head. Moments later, the dead hulk of the captain slammed down to the ground.

"Get that brute shot…" Cortana said. "You might need it."

"Right." The Master Chief agreed. He then kneeled down and picked up the powerful weapon.

"O.K., I've activated this gravity lift. All you need to do is jump in." Cortana said. The Master Chief hesitated.

"It's harmless really, just hop in." Cortana encouraged bracingly.

0500 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

En Route to installation 05/ Onboard "The Sparta"

Captain Corbec watched angrily onboard the UNSC destroyer: "The Sparta" as slipspace ruptures started to form around the covenant carrier. If the carrier managed to enter slipspace inside New Mombassa, then New Mombassa would be utterly destroyed. But the captain couldn't do anything when New Mombassa was enveloped in a bright white dome… and destroyed.

"LeRiche!" Corbec said addressing a bridge officer. "Get the coordinates of where the carrier is heading… and quickly!"

"Done." LeRiche replied wiping his forehead. "Just in time too."

"Great job LeRiche, now get me Admiral Clark, priority Alpha." Corbec ordered.

"Aye sir… okay, here he is."

"Corbec? This better be quick." The Admiral said.

"Request permission to tail that carrier."

"Denied, In Amber Clad is already tailing that ship, and I've got some spartans on a carrier-"The Admiral paused. "What? The carrier just jumped also? Are you sure? Damn! Okay… permission granted. Just get back safely."

"Thank you Admiral. Nieger, get ready to jump at these coordinates."

"Aye sir." Nieger said.

"Corbec, send me those coordinates. We'll send the cavalry after you guys later. Good luck." The Admiral then saluted and disappeared off the transmission screen.

Just then, a spartan accessed the COM.

"Permission to enter the bridge Captain." The spartan said.

Remembering that the rest of the spartans were onboard the ship Corbec granted the spartan permission. The bridge's door opened and a spartan in red armor walked in.

"Spartan- 248 Heather on bridge, sir!" She said saluting.

"At ease." Captain Corbec said. "So what is it?"

"Is it true that Spartan-249 and the others are currently onboard a covenant carrier, sir?" The spartan asked.

Corbec shifted uneasily and said, "Yes spartan. We are currently in pursuit and… What in god's name…" The Sparta had just exited slipspace and the forward cameras showed a sight to behold.

Under a huge covenant fleet, which appeared to be fighting amongst themselves, was a magnificent ring…

0630 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

En route to High Charity/Currently inside a dropship/ Inside prison cell

Andrew slowly regained consciousness and his eyes opened. The back of his head throbbed in pain inside his helmet as he observed his surroundings. He was inside a prison cell inhabited with Evan and Smith, who were unconscious. Outside the energy shield keeping the spartans captured was a brute looking outside the dropship's window. Andrew could see a huge ship coming closer and closer as they approached it.

"I've hacked into the covenant religious network and the Covenant seem to christen that ship: High Charity, the holy city. Seems like were going in." Bastila whispered through Andrew's inner helmet speakers.

Totally forgetting that Bastila was with him Andrew asked, "Bastila, can you lower these prison shields?"

"Maybe we should wait till the others regain consciousness…"

"That'll take too long, just cover me." Andrew said.

"Okay… if you say so." Bastila sounded rather worried. The prison shields flickered and failed… and Andrew lashed out. The brute that was looking out the window fell down from the spine cracking blow and Andrew retrieved its dropped brute shot.

"Damn, it's empty." Andrew thought. Coming to investigate, two brutes that were on the other side of the prison cell spotted Andrew and roared. They both berserked and rammed into Andrew easily knocking out his shields… but Andrew used the bayonet attached to the brute shot and stabbed one brute through the head. The other brute roared in anger and tried to ram into Andrew again when the spartan sliced its neck open. Both brutes slammed to the ground.

Suddenly two strong hands appeared and grabbed Andrew's neck. The hands, which were attached to the brute piloting the dropship, slammed Andrew against the dropship's wall. Red flashes played against Andrew's vision, his windpipe swelled, and the spartan began to black out…

Suddenly the grip slackened and Andrew and the brute fell to the ground. Evan and Smith stood above Andrew and helped him up.

"Didn't miss this time eh?" Andrew rasped.

"Nope, I'm too good!" Evan bragged.

Smith, who was walking toward the dropship's controls, said, "Hey, looks like we're landing…"


	2. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

0630 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

High Charity/ Capital Ship landing bay

Ando Mormoslee and the Commander hurried out of the Fabled Prophecy with Ando's squad of grunts, elites, and newly adorned hunters. From what High Charity's security system told, Ando and the Commander could tell that the parasite, also known as the flood, was wreaking havoc in the Holy City.

Just as well, the brutes, jackals, drones, and what shocked them the most, the prophets, had betrayed them. Thousands of warships were fighting each other over the holy city at that very moment.

"My brothers," Ando started. "We are to fight our way through High Charity and make contact with a squad of elites that was sent down here an hour ago. Any brute, jackal, or drone in our way is to be conquered, they have betrayed us and we shall show them our wrath! The next thing we need to discuss is the Flood, if one of your team is taken and infected by the Flood, you must kill him before he can spread to any other life forms. Whether it be your best friend or even your Commander, you must neutralize the threat immediately. It may seem harsh, but we cannot risk the Flood spreading. Should the Flood cross your path, the weaponry to use against them is the Energy Swords and the fuel rod cannons. Grunts are forbidden to use the Energy Swords," he said, turning to face them. "You are to use only fuel rod cannons. Hunters," he indicated towards the metal behemoths, "you have your Fuel Rod Cannons."

The team of covenant raised their guns in compliance and followed Ando to the hangar door.

"Ando," The commander said. "I shall stay here and protect the ship with the others. Good luck."

Ando nodded and went through the hangar door.

Ando and his team had entered a large room where many brutes, jackals, and drones were fighting against the flood. The jackals fired ineffective plasma at the flood while drones flew all over the area firing their plasma pistols. Beserking brutes were ripping apart their foes like the animals they were but were abruptly put down when fuel rods impacted the entire battleground. Seeing a new enemy, the flood started to open fire with an assortment of weapons, Covenant and human. Yim Yam took out his plasma pistol and shot an infection form that had flown straight at his face.

"Grunts!" Ando yelled. "Use your plasma weapons to destroy the infection forms. Leave the combat forms to us! For the New Covenant! Fight my brothers!" The elites cut apart the flood with their powerful energy swords as the giant hunters raised their shields and fired bright green beams of light from their fuel rod cannons completely burning the flood in emerald flames.

"Help! Yim Yam, help Pi Pi!" Pi Pi cried as an infection form attached itself to the grunt's face. Yim Yam stood there frozen in fear, the grunts then squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the trigger of his pistol…

Kyle silently stealth killed the two brutes guarding the dropship onboard the Fabled Prophecy and sent the all clear signal. From what he and his team saw onboard the carrier… it was that the brutes, jackals, and drones were fighting against the elites, hunters, and grunts.

"Get inside this dropship; it's time to get outta here!" Kyle said. Bastila had told them over the COM that Andrew and the others had escaped already.

Spartan- 211, the team's vehicle specialist, sat down at the dropship's controls and jabbed at many different buttons.

"You sure you know how to pilot this bird?" Monica asked raising her eyebrow.

"Um…" 211 pressed another button and the spartans could feel the dropship float up. "Now I do."

"Okay, gear up spartans! Squad leader's AI reported that the Flood is currently on this "Holy City", energy swords and shotguns work exceptionally well on them." Soon each spartan had been equipped with at least a Covenant energy sword or a shotgun. Kyle, who had chose to dual wield energy swords, told Spartan-211 to get ready.

"There are three turrets on this ship, who wants to have some fun?"

The commander and his team had been so busy holding off the flood invaders and the brutes that they didn't notice the dropship leaving the hangar bay…

"Bastila… whatever you do, don't fly into that hangar." Andrew said quietly.

"Why's that?" Bastila replied.

"Because the Flood is in that hangar and are WAITING FOR US! TURN AROUND!" Andrew yelled as rockets and boiling plasma shot straight at the dropship.

"Hang on…" Bastila replied, her voice was thick with concentration. Andrew and Smith grabbed the side of the prison cell, just in time too. The dropship made a sharp turn and made Evan fly to the other side of the dropship where he lay unconscious.

"Jesus, he must be drinking on the job again…"

"What the hell… Andrew, look at that." Bastila said awestruck. Andrew peered out the window and saw a UNSC ship had crashed into a wall. Below the dropship, a pelican had crashed onto a landing platform where countless flood fought against two unlucky brutes.

"Get inside that ship Bastila, there might be humans in there." Andrew said.

"Or flood." Bastila replied grimly.

"Spartan-249 to spartan-283, do you copy?" Andrew said over the COM.

There was a pause then Kyle's voice said, "Andrew? Where are you?"

"Just meet me in the crashed UNSC ship, it's near a landing platform, got it?"

There was another pause and Kyle finally said, "Got it." Then there was silence.

The dropship entered the UNSC ship, In Amber Clad's, single hangar bay. Inside there were seven regular pelicans and 8 Longsword fighters. Andrew, Smith, and a revived Evan exited the dropship looked around. Besides a couple of stray infection forms, there was no movement. Weaponless, the three spartans walked around the hangar until Andrew ran across two dead marines. One had been armed with a sniper rifle while the other had two magnum pistols. Andrew tossed the sniper rifle to Smith and a magnum to Evan, now armed with a single pistol, the three spartans waited for the other's arrival…

The burnt remains of the infection form fell to the ground and Yim Yam sighed in relief. Pi Pi was alive although he was severely wounded. Yim Yam took out a med pack and handed it to Pi Pi, the grunt then took out his fuel rod cannon and sighted a group of Flood.

"Big bad parasites aren't so tough now!" Yim Yam chuckled.

But then a new enemy joined the battle.

Ando Mormoslee looked up and saw a flock of Sentinels fly in, they then opened fire with their blue and red sentinel beams. Flood forms burned, Covenant died, yet the team still stood strong. Two grunts fired their fuel rod cannons at the flock and took out three before the sentinels converged on them. Yim Yam was standing near a wounded grunt shooting his fuel rod cannon rapidly at the sentinels.

"Regroup! Elites, use your plasma rifles! Destroy these machines with everything you've got!" Ando roared. At the other end of the room, a door opened, and out came a single, white ultra elite followed by one hunter and 11 grunts. They also opened fire upon the machines until there was no more.

Ando looked at what remained of his squad. Two elites, three hunters, and seven grunts… the rest of his squad had fallen in battle.

"Gold commander," The white armored elite said, rather surprised. "You have been sent to find the missing team?"

"Yes, have you seen them?" Ando replied.

The elite looked down and said, "I am what remains of that team. I ran into this squad when I was making my way through the Holy City. The prophets have escaped."

"And what of this ring world?" Ando asked.

"The prophets were wrong, the Arbiter informed us that the Sacred Rings are used to destroy all life."

"The Arbiter? I haven't seen him for years!" Ando said having once served under the elite. "Where is he now?"

"We lost contact with him a while ago."

Suddenly Yim Yam waddled over to the elites and said, "Transmission coming from commander sir!"

"Gold commander," The commander of the Fabled Prophecy said. "Have you made contact with the team?"

"No, well, actually, in a matter of fact, yes. Only the CO survived though." Ando replied.

"Damn, well, we need you to return to the Fabled Prophecy. We have something to show you."

"Yes commander." Ando answered. "Okay men! Return to the Fabled Prophecy!"

Suddenly, a Flood-like screech sounded somewhere behind the door in which the CO had came through.

"Gold Commander…" The CO started. "I must make up for the blood I have spilt. I shall stay behind and stop the Flood from passing this room."

Ando stared at the elite for a second and nodded. With that, the white armored elite went back through the door.

"Okay men! Let's move out!" Ando yelled.


	3. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

0700 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

High Charity/ Inside In Amber Clad/ Looking for survivors

"Okay…" Andrew started. "Kyle, Monica, Cameron, Philip… you guys are with me! Everyone else, defend this hangar! The ships in it may be the only way we can get off. Okay, move out!" The spartans saluted and went off to set up their defenses.

Andrew walked over to Smith and whispered, "Keep an eye on Evan; he seems to be getting drunker by the second." Smith nodded and walked over to the alcoholic spartan.

The marines that were rescued from the Fabled Prophecy had already unloaded all the makeshift barriers, turrets, and weapons from the Covenant Phantom. Andrew picked up a shotgun and a battle rifle from a nearby weapons table and led the others to the entrance to the hangar where five of the ten plasma turrets had been set up.

"Aim those turrets at the door, Flood might come pouring in." Andrew ordered. Philip unlocked the door and the marines manning the plasma turrets poured boiling blue plasma through the door… but there were no Flood.

"Strange… okay, let's go!" The five spartans stepped through the entrance and the doors slid shut behind them. It was eerily quiet in the corridor as the spartans ran through. There wasn't even the stray infection form expected to pop out randomly whenever there was a Flood encounter. But there were dead bodies. Dead marines stared up at the spartans with lifeless eyes; their mouths wide open as though screaming in terror.

In the next room, a cafeteria, there were more dead bodies. The floor was riddled with bullet casings.

"I got a bad feeling about this place…" Philip muttered. Suddenly the dead marines slowly got up and started to walk very slowly towards the spartans. But these marines weren't normal UNSC soldiers. Their heads and arms were hanging lopsidedly around their bodies. One marine had no head at all….

"What the hell are you waiting for? OPEN FIRE!" Andrew roared. Monica and Andrew fired their battle rifles simultaneously at the forms mowing one row down after the other while Kyle fired his shotgun at the monstrosities. Cameron took out his brute shot and started to blast the hell out of the dead bodies as Philip lashed out his energy sword and started to cut off the Flood combat forms limbs. But they kept on coming, soon the spartans were surrounded.

Monica backed up next to Andrew and yelled, "We need to fall back or we'll get over-…" a dead marine's arm slammed against her helmet and she flew backwards into a wall.

"Monica! You bast…" Andrew cried out as he unslung his shotgun and shot head off the Flood that had attacked Monica.

"Monica! Are you okay?" Andrew yelled. Monica slowly stood up and nodded. "Make a break for it at the opposite door!" The five spartans sprinted over the bloodstained tiles and ran through the opposite door where they met a new monstrosity. Many pieces of armor were missing from the two infected hunters guarding a huge hole in the wall. One had a long tentacle replacing its powerful shield; the other had a series of morphed battle armor. Normally hunters were easy to take down with a sniper rifle, but Flood forms were immune to sniper rifles; the bullets just passed right through them. One of the hunters made an unearthly roar and started to charge forward.

"Grenades! On my mark… MARK!" Andrew yelled. Together, the five spartans threw an assortment of plasma and fragmentation grenades at the Flood infected hunter and a huge explosion filled the corridor.

"Hold your fire!" Andrew commanded. "Wait for i- Argh!" Suddenly, the infected hunter's tentacle- like arm lashed out and wrapped around Andrew's helmet. It then lifted the spartan and slammed him against the wall. Seeing that the spartan was out of the fight, the hunter turned around and quickly lashed out its tentacle at Monica. The spartan leapt aside; dodging the Flood's tentacle, and Kyle ran in.

BAM! "Go…" BAM! "To…" BAM! "HELL!" Kyle yelled as he pulled the trigger of his shotgun. The tentacle fell limply at the Flood's side. The Flood infected hunter roared angrily and it whip lashed out its second tentacle at Cameron. Cameron cursed as his shields failed and his armor's insistent warning system sounded. Philip rammed into Cameron and threw themselves sideways as the hunter attacked again.

Seeing that the only enemy left standing, it lashed out its tentacle, yet again, and wrapped it around Monica's helmet.

She started to scream when the grip slackened and the bloated form of the hunter fell sideways. Andrew stood behind the dead, Flood infected, hunter's body clutching his side. His armored gauntlet was covered with slime as he had reached in the hunter's body and crushed the infection form within.

"Phew, now we need to take out the other infected hunter." Andrew said.

Monica walked over to Andrew and slipped her hand into his. "Thanks Andrew, I owe you one."

As Andrew stammered his response, Kyle, Philip, and Cameron were cooking up a new plan to demolish the second hunter.

"Leave it to me guys." Philip said.

"Are you sure?" Kyle asked, frowning.

Philip picked up his energy sword and nodded. "All I need is a distraction."

Andrew, Monica, Cameron, and Kyle cautiously walked towards the second Flood infected hunter. Its head leaned forward; patiently waiting for it's pray to draw near…

"Screw this, O.K. spartans! Open fire!" Andrew ordered. The four spartans started to spray lead at the abomination as a green glow started to be seen under the Flood infected hunter's shield.

"Scatter! It's using its fuel rod gun!" Cameron yelled.

"No! Philip told us to hold our positions! Activate your overshields!" Andrew replied. The four spartans energy shields started to turn a pearly sheen as the infected hunter's fuel rod gun discharged. The narrow beam of emerald green energy went forward and headed straight towards Monica. She ducked as the plasma went straight over her head.

"Fuck this you…" She grunted as she primed a frag. The grenade flew straight behind the hunter, rebounded off the wall and landed behind the monstrosity. WHAM! The grenade exploded sending shrapnel flying into the air. In the smoke caused by the grenade, a low moan was heard, then Philip walked out brandishing an energy sword. He had cut the infected hunter in half.

"Nice one!" Andrew grinned.

"Hey guys! What the hell is this?" Kyle yelled outside the large hole the infected hunters had been guarding. Just outside the hole beyond the mangled corpses of two regular hunters, was a large chasm. Connected to it was a large energy beam under a handful of balconies. On the side the spartans where on, there was a large object that was bowl shaped, it could've easily fit about 30 spartans on it.

"Seems like a transport shuttle." Cameron observed.

"Seems like a way out if things get really nasty. Okay, if we can't get back to the hangar, we'll have to go back on this thing." Andrew said.

"There's a phantom on the other platform, which would really help us out." Bastila said.

"Great, it's settled now."

The five spartans walked back inside In Amber Clad and continued on in search for survivors…


	4. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

0700 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside The Fabled Prophecy/ High Charity

"That tower? What's so special about it?" Ando asked.

"It's no tower, it's a Forerunner ship, and it seems so that the prophets are going to use it to escape High Charity!" The Commander replied.

"How can we board that ship?" Ando said as he stood up.

"Board that ship? By the prophets, that's suicide!" The Commander said.

"How can we, I, board that ship?" Ando said firmly.

"You won't be coming alone, that's for sure," The Commander sighed and said, "That energy beam, if you can get to its power source, you can then enter the beam and it will carry you to the Forerunner ship."

"Thank you Commander," Ando replied.

The Phantom's three plasma turrets let loose a stream of boiling energy raining plasma on the Flood below. Slowly, the Flood on the landing platform were destroyed, so as Ando Mormoslee and his team set foot on the landing platform, only a few stray infection forms remained.

"Grunts, you provide covering fire, Hunters, you shall take out the groups of Flood, we elites shall take care of the rest." Ando said. Yim Yam and the rest of the team shouted "YES SIR!" and made their way to the single door.

"Good luck, I shall pick up some reinforcements and try to find a way inside the Forerunner ship!" The Commander said over the COM. With that the dropship flew off.

"Okay, you two!" Ando ordered pointing at two grunts, "Cover that doorway! Hunters, move in!" The two grunts backed up against the doorway as two hunters entered followed by the rest of the team.

One elite stood awestruck at the pair of Flood infected hunters and muttered, "Why, the hunters have been taken by the Flood as well…"

The two regular hunters roared angrily and raised their shields, their fuel rod cannons slowly charging.

"Open fire!" A mix of blue, green, and emerald plasma impacted on the infected hunters followed by the comet-like fuel rods from the grunt's fuel rod cannons and the beam-like energy from the hunter's arm mounted cannons. Yim Yam primed a plasma grenade and threw it between the two monstrosities. As the grenade exploded, a pair of tentacles lashed out and smashed one hunter. The other hunter roared angrily and charged forward lashing out its spines and cutting one infected hunter in half. The other infected hunter roared just as angrily and, using its shield like a sword, slammed it down upon the regular hunter's shield. The infected hunter may have had more strength, but the regular hunter had something better… a fuel rod cannon. The regular hunter slammed its gun into the unshielded part of its enemy's body and fired. Moments later, two halves of the infected hunter's body slammed to the ground.

Nodding appreciatively at the hunter, Ando led the team through the next door, where a grav lift awaited.

"You have to wait here," Ando said to the hunter knowing that the beast in its armor wouldn't be able to fit in the gravity lift. "I'll go up first, you grunts follow, and then you elites take the rear. You two elites, help the hunter guard the lift." The hunter and the two elites nodded as Ando and the rest of his team went up the gravity lift.

Ando took out his plasma rifle and signaled to the rest of the team that they were nearing the end of the lift. The opposite end opened and Ando and his team spilled out. The area was secure. The team followed the hallway and exited via the door in front of them.

Ando and his team entered a huge chasm where three platforms floated. Several swarms of drones, packs of brutes, and groups of Flood where fighting. Suddenly a narrow beam of energy erupted through the wall of exchange fire and utterly destroyed a group of bunched up drones.

"Why, that's a hunter's…" Ando muttered, "Men, head to the Central Platform! Allies are awaiting us!" Ando led his team onto another platform and signaled the grunts to stay there and provide covering fire. Ando and his elites then took a gravity bridge from there to the Central Platform where Ando and his elites found four hunters and five flustered elites were doing their best against the tidal wave of enemies.

"Gold Commander!" A gold armored Zealot said. "The Commander sent us forward to escort you and your team to the conduit! Quickly, we don't have much time!" The Zealot started to head towards another gravity bridge when the bridge exploded. Flying past a burning group of Drones having just impacted against a grunt's fuel rod, a Sentinel Major surrounded by a flock of sentinels emerged.

"Open fire!" Ando roared. The elites and the hunters immediately started to open fire at the newcomers. Drones flew around the sentinels firing their plasma pistols at the machines as narrow beams of energy slowly set the Drone's wings alight. Beserking Brutes charged around randomly landing ineffective punches upon the Flood. The brutes that had not berserked where firing their red brute plasma rifles at the nearest enemy before a Flood infection form would latch itself to the beast. The sentinel major fired its mortar launcher and its mini missiles at the crowd. Ando Mormoslee saw a drone fly towards him and turned around to face it. Using his plasma rifle, he melee attacked the buglike alien, but it didn't do a thing… even the drones had been taken by the Flood.

Yim Yam saw the Guardians of the sacred rings emerge from the swarm of burning Drones, he had just set alight with his fuel rod cannon, and ordered three grunts to focus only on the Sentinel Major. As the three grunts rapidly fired their fuel rod cannons, making a total of fifteen comet-like fuel rods arcing gracefully towards the Sentinel Major, another flock of Sentinels arrived above the grunts. The flock flew forwards and engaged a swarm of drones when the fuel rods impacted on them. Bits of flaming metal and burning corpses rained everywhere.

"Damn!" Yim Yam thought, "Those bad Drones are getting in our line of fire!" Yim Yam saw another salvo of fuel rods fly towards the Sentinel Major when, once again, flying Drones and Sentinels flew in the way.

"That's it! You three!" Yim Yam grunted as he addressed the three grunts that had been firing their fuel rod cannons at. "Follow me! We have to get in close to take out that Sentinel Major, follow me!" Yim Yam led the three fuel rod cannon wielding grunts towards the gravity bridge. From there, the grunts floated over to the Central Platform.

Ando had drawn his energy sword and was slicing his enemies apart when four grunts waddled in front of him towards the Sentinel Major. Suddenly a group of infected brutes started to charge and Ando and his elites fought back. They needed evac.

Yim Yam and the grunts had snuck right under the Sentinel Major, which was floating straight above the Central Platform, and quietly aimed their fuel rod cannons.

"Open fire!" Yim Yam yelled. Twenty fuel rods flew towards the mechanical beast. After three fuel rods had impacted on its metal body, the Sentinel Major finally noticed the grunts and it backed away, completely dodging the other fuel rods. It fired its mortar launcher and red needler-like crystals flew directly at the four grunts.

"Ugh!" One grunts groaned, he then fell down… dead.

"Hold positions!" Yim Yam shouted as panic started to creep up into his voice. Four of the fifteen fuel rods launched from the grunts impacted on the Sentinel Major's dual energy shields, both shields failed and a single fuel rod impacted on its body. Another salvo of mortar and another grunt fell down.

"Charge up your plasma pistol and fire!" Yim Yam practically sobbed. Yim Yam and the last grunt drew their plasma pistols and fired the charged shots. They homed in on the Sentinel Major and made a direct hit. The smoking metal corpse fell down to High Charity's city. Yim Yam sighed in relief, the grunts had taken down their first Sentinel Major…

Ando Mormoslee saw the Sentinel Major explode and felt a renewed energy seep into his body.

"This is it! Drive these beasts, Flood, Covenant, and Sentinel alike to their deaths! Charge!" Ando roared. The Zealot, Yim Yam and his grunts, the three surviving hunters, and all the elites charged forward and mercilessly mowed down Flood, Covenant, and Sentinel alike. Soon only clustered groups of Flood and Sentinels remained. A few small swarms of Drones still flew around doing their best to survive against their enemies. But, suddenly, another Sentinel Major arrived. On the Central Platform's opposite side, a human dropship hovered above Ando and his team. Ando could see a human Flood piloting the ship.

"All is lost!" A grunt wailed hopelessly.

"Need some help?" A familiar voice said over the COM. Ando looked up and saw a Phantom hovering over Ando and his team.

"Just in time Commander." Ando Mormoslee replied.

"Well? Jump in!" The Commander laughed. The Zealot, who was dual wielding energy swords, looked up hardly daring to believe it.

"Let's go!" Ando laughed. The remaining grunts, elites, and hunters ran towards the Phantoms gravity lift and floated inside.

Meanwhile, the Phantom's three turrets started to glow alight and they let loose three streams of boiling plasma at the Flood controlled pelican and the Sentinel Major. Ando Mormoslee walked up towards the gravity lift and took one last look at the battlefield, the drones had already retreated and the remaining sentinels were almost all badly damaged… wires were hanging loosely all over their metal bodies. The remaining Flood forms stood motionlessly on the Central Platform as the Flood controlled pelican and the Sentinel Major returned fire at each other and at the Phantom.

The elite in golden armor went up the gravity lift and the Phantom took off, stray bullets and plasma trailing randomly behind it….


	5. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

0800 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

High Charity/ Inside In Amber Clad/ Looking for survivors

"You're coming up on the engine room, stay sharp." Bastila told Andrew after he and his team exited the large hole. The hallway that led to the engine room's entrance was thick with the spores Flood usually left behind, whatever Andrew and the others expected to be in the engine room, it was the Flood.

Andrew paused next to the door, looked down at the pair of dead marines, and hoped they wouldn't reanimate like the other bodies in the cafeteria. Andrew then punched in the door's 'open' button and entered the room. Inside, there were two platforms above the main floor. Andrew, who was standing on one of the platforms, looked down and saw hundred of Flood forms slowly, zombie-like, walking around. On the opposite platform, some Flood forms sighted the spartans.

Suddenly, before the Flood combat forms had a chance to fire, seven fear crazed marines entered through the door behind the monstrosities... oblivious to the spartans nearby. Two Flood infected Marines went down when the rest of the Flood below sighted the regular Marines.

"Ahhh hah hah!" A marine cried out as he fired his SMG at the advancing Flood. Infection forms popped, combat forms lost limbs, but the Flood kept on advancing. Suddenly, another, larger, group of marines entered from the ground floor. They weren't fear crazed like the marines in front of the spartans, they seemed okay besides the fact that they were freaked out. But they weren't freaked out enough to stop fighting.

"Let's go! Shoot these ugly bastards!" A marine, a sergeant, shouted. The marines started to open fire at the advancing Flood with an assortment of battle rifles, assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, and HE pistols.

"C'mon! Let's help those marines!" Andrew yelled. The spartans leapt down in the middle of the group of Flood and started to open fire. Cameron and Philip slashed randomly at the Flood with their dual wielded energy swords, cursing and yelling. Kyle had run towards the large group of awestruck marines to tell them to hold their fire. Andrew saw that the fear crazed marines were getting slaughtered by Flood combat forms, he and Monica leapt across from the platform to the other platform where the marines were. Andrew shoved his shotgun through one combat form and blasted the head off the combat form behind it. Monica had shoved the protesting marines into a corner and sighted a combat form sneaking up Andrew's six. She aimed her battle rifle, and after a series of three round bursts, the Flood form fell down, a huge cavity in its chest.

"Okay spartans! Regroup! Meet me where those marines are!" Andrew shouted as he pointed towards the larger group of marines. Monica and Andrew grabbed the surviving fear crazed marines and ran towards the group of marines.

"Duck!" Kyle yelled. Andrew grabbed Monica and they slammed to the ground, just as hundreds of bullets passed overhead and literally shredded a group of oncoming Flood. Once again, grabbing the marines by their shirt collars, Andrew, Monica, and the fear crazed marines ran towards the Marine's positions.

"C'mon sir! Let's head back to HQ! Follow me!" The sergeant yelled as he motioned towards the door they came through.

Andrew, his spartans, and the marines ran through the blast doors and locked them shut. From there, they went through a long series of hallways and corridors before they entered the Marine's HQ.

It was In Amber Clad's armory.

"Thank goodness you guys came!" The sergeant said, sounding exhausted. "I thought we were doomed until we saw you jumping down from those platforms."

"No problem," Andrew replied as he looked around the HQ. Makeshift barriers, turrets, it was the typical type of shabby defense. Kyle was standing in the back making some rearrangements.

"We are here to find any surviving marines… are you guys it?"

The sergeant nodded grimly as he looked at the forty-six surviving marines and the orbital drop shock troopers, ODSTs. Many were wounded.

"Sergeant, we need to get to the hangar, that way we can escape this Flood infested ship."

"Good thinking sir, but we'll have to get through many hallways and Flood infested areas before we can make it to the hangar, and, as you can see, we have wounded.

Andrew nodded grimly when a new, a wonderful idea popped into his head.

"Bastila, can you get inside the ship and depressurize some of the ship's rooms?" Andrew asked.

"Let me see… Yes! I can! Only the rooms that have functional depressurization vents… and that's only 32 percent of the ship. Though, Flood aren't effected by… oh!" Bastila replied.

"That's right, Flood infection forms pop at the lightest touch. No doubt the would pop if they were depressurized!" Andrew nodded. "Let's go!"

A single, rather large, group of humans slowly made their way through In Amber Clad's corridors. They encountered almost no resistance though, in one encounter, a group of Flood had broken through the ceiling. After many hours of fighting and running, the group finally made it back to the room with the large hole.

"Andrew, I don't think we can all run through the cafeteria, it'd be too crowded." Bastila said.

That was a rather large snag, a very large snag indeed. If they'd try to take turns running through, then the Flood forms would be awake when they'd try to run.

"I know!" Andrew said. About fifty percent of In Amber Clad's human survivors were ODSTs, which meant the rest of the marines would be able to easily all fit inside the cramped cafeteria.

"Okay, all ODSTs follow me and Monica! Kyle, you have command of everyone else… get to the armory and wait for us to arrive, agreed?" Kyle nodded and led the marines and the other two spartans through the cafeteria doors. Now only Andrew, Monica, and 22 ODSTs were left.

"Okay, follow me!" Andrew commanded. The humans walked through the large hole and entered the large chasm with the bowl shaped transporting lift.

The ODSTs followed the two spartans inside the bowl shaped transporting lift.

"Give me a moment to activate this piece of junk." Bastila said. Suddenly, a large group of Flood, including two infected hunters, exited the large hole and saw the group of humans.

"Open fire!" Andrew yelled. "Bastila, any time you're ready!" The lift jerked forward and started to smoothly float towards the opposite platform.

"Don't worry." Bastila replied as Flood combat forms started to pour out of the doors leading to the balconies.

"Um… I'm getting REALLY worried now." Andrew replied.

Even though some of the combat forms didn't make the jump, the vast majority of the combat forms leapt onto the lift and started to open fire with an assortment of weapons. Three ODSTs fell down as a Flood infected elite and an infected brute used their tentacles to whip them with supernatural strength.

When the lift had finally made it halfway through the chasm, only eleven ODSTs remained. Monica had dual wielded two SMGs and was firing them at a crowd of combat forms when a sniper rifle bullet cut through the air… and passed straight through Monica's chest.

"Agghhh!" Monica cried out in pain as her SMGs fell to the ground. Blood started to slowly drip from her wound.

Andrew, who heard her cry out in pain, stood there; dumbstruck for a moment, when a plasma bolt impacted on his weakened shields. His shields overloaded and failed as Andrew sprinted towards the wounded spartan. He grabbed Monica and threw her down as another sniper rifle bullet flew by her helmet. Andrew turned and saw a single, flood infected human, holding a sniper rifle single-handedly. It fired off another shot and the bullet passed straight through Andrew's leg, blood gushed from the wound… but the spartan didn't care. He needed to get Monica to a medic… and fast.

"Suppressing fire!" Andrew screamed. The ODSTs circled around the two wounded spartans and started to fire their weapons. The sniper rifle wielding Flood went down as a merciless hail of bullets cut through the air and impacted on the monstrosities. Andrew slowly stood up and fired his BR55 rifle at the Flood as well.

Then, there was a slight bump that interrupted through the lift's smooth ride. They had made it. Andrew picked up Monica's unconscious body from the bloodied lift floor and carried her to the Phantom. On the other side of the chasm, Flood were standing… still as statues. Their prey had escaped.

"Hang on…" Bastila said grimly as the last ODST entered the dropship. The Phantom slowly started to hover and it took off, flying away from the Flood infested chasm….


	6. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

1100 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Exiting Slipspace/ Covenant Fleet In orbit over Installation 05/ Onboard The Sparta

"What the hell is that?" Captain Corbec muttered as The Sparta passed straight over the giant ring. He could see lush rolling hills, spiky mountains, and a large body of water, it was amazing.

"Sir! Our sensors are picking up signals! Of a… a… a Covenant fleet sir! You've got to see this." A Lieutenant LeRiche reported. In front of Captain Corbec, the bridge's view screen showed the largest Covenant fleet ever recorded in human history. But it was rather strange, the ships were opening fire on each other. Two carriers were firing pulse lasers at each other, slowly desinigrating each other's shields.

Corbec gazed at the battle scene when another member of the bridge crew, Lieutenant Miller, said, "Sir! See that large Covenant ship in the middle of the Covenant fleet?" He asked. The Captain looked at the structure and wondered how in the hell could that be a ship?

"Yes I see it, what about it?" The Captain replied.

"I'm detecting UNSC signals from inside it, there are marines in there."

"Flank speed to that… thing. Nieger!"

"Yes sir?" Nieger replied.

"Open all archer missile pods and charge up our two MAC guns, triple rounds if you please."

"Aye sir."

"O.K. We're about to enter the Covenant fleet in five, four, three, two, one… we're in! It's gonna get rough…" The Sparta's archer missile pods opened and over 500 homing missiles streaked into space. One unshielded Covenant Destroyer took the majority of the missiles on its portside. An engine exploded and the burning hulk of the Destroyer crashed into a Covenant Carrier, both ships tumbled into space.

"Fire MAC guns on my mark!" Corbec shouted. Another Covenant Destroyer loomed into view.

"FIRE!"

The MAC guns erupted and a total of six super-dense ferric tungsten bolts flew towards the Destroyer. The first two shots impacted on its shield, completely disabling them, the second pair of shots hammered straight through its stern, the last two bolts slammed straight in the middle. Soon the mangled Covenant Destroyer shuddered and exploded… totally covering three other ships in white hot flames.

"Sir! Closing in on the large structure."

"Good! Nieger, charge up our MAC guns and prepare to punch a hole inside that thing."

"Uh, sir? Something is coming out of that structure." The Captain looked at the view screen and saw a large triangular like ship erupting from the Covenant structure. It was easily the largest ship any human being had ever seen. It flew straight through the battle and jumped into slipspace.

"Hurry! Get inside that opening!" Corbec shouted. The large hole that had opened up so the large ship could get through was slowly closing up.

"Hold on..." LeRiche muttered. His voice was thick with concentration. The Sparta's engines flared and the human Destroyer rapidly closed in on the opening.

"Sir! Covenant Seraph fighters on our tail!" Lieutenant Miller yelled.

"Ignore them." Captain Corbec replied. The seraphs opened fire on The Sparta's engines.

"Release our single ships!"

"All fighter pilots please man a Longsword interceptor." Nieger said over the ship's speakers. Ten of the twenty Longswords flew out of The Sparta's hangar and started to engage the enemy. The ten human singleships opened fire with their 70mm rotary cannons and the seven Seraph fighter shields started to slowly fade. However, the Seraph fighters returned fire. Plasma missiles impacted the archer missiles. Blue and red explosions filled the area.

"I don't think we're gonna make it!" Nieger screamed. They made it. The Sparta slipped through the closing hole and hovered above the Covenant city.

"Phew! Okay… so, where are the signals originating from?" Captain Corbec said shakily.

"At the north side of the city. Right… there!" Lieutenant Miller replied. The Sparta came up on a large landing platform. Next to it, however, was a human ship.

"In Amber Clad…" The Captain whispered.

1100 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside In Amber Clad/ Hangar bay

Andrew carried Monica out of the Phantom and laid her on one of the empty weapons tables. She was still alive, her vital monitors showed that, but if they didn't get her to a medic soon, she would perish.

"Whoa, Andrew, what the hell happened to you?" Kyle asked. Andrew looked down and saw that his MJOLNIR armor was slicked with blood. The multicolored Covenant blood, the olive drab color of the Flood's blood, and some of his own. But of course, almost every other spartan's armor had blood on it.

"Ambush, rather long story." Andrew muttered as he grabbed a medpac. Andrew took out a canister of biofoam from the medpac and filled Monica's wounds up. After taping the wounds, most of the bleeding stopped. He then did the same with his leg.

"So, where can we go now?" Andrew asked.

"We could steal a Covenant ship." Philip suggested.

"I don't think we're up to that." Andrew replied thinking about the sheer number of Covenant on a single Cruiser. He looked at Monica's prone form and tried to think of a way to get them all back to a human controlled area.

Suddenly, Andrew's COM opened. "Any UNSC personnel please respond. This is Captain Corbec of the UNSC corps. Anyone read me?"

The group of spartans looked at one another.

"Seems like your girlfriend will survive after all." Bastila smirked, obviously, relieved.

After the last of the seven pelicans and eight Longsword fighters landed in The Sparta's hangar, The Sparta flew off, away from the accursed In Amber Clad, punched a hole into High Charity's wall, and flew off. The two remaining Longswords that had been sent to fend off the Seraphs had concealed themselves in a Covenant Cruiser's wreckage, and were now landing in The Sparta's hangar bay. Andrew, Monica, and the many wounded humans had been sent off to the medical bay where they had to stay for at least a week before they could fight again.

After making several adjustments, The Sparta entered slipspace and headed towards the Sol system…Earth. Kyle, who was Andrew's second in command, was to take control of the team while Andrew recovered from his injuries. That meant Kyle would lead the next mission, the Captain had already informed them that a base, Alpha base, was under attack. The Spartans were to be dropped off with plenty of reinforcements and defend the base with the best of their abilities. But right now, the soldiers were having a couple of hours of R&R.

The team's armor had been sent to The Sparta's armory, where technicians were currently repairing the team's battered armor. Many of the MJOLNIR battle suits had to replaced, others, had areas that were severely damaged, so severe that the technicians would have to remove that part. Others, just had minor breaches, busted compartments, overheated shield generators, and total power failure.

Meanwhile, the remaining 64 Spartans, not counting the wounded, were lounging around the mess, the rec room and the sleeping chambers.

Kyle, Cameron, Cody, Philip, and Smith were sitting at a table playing a game of cards. Evan, however, had been sent to the medical bay because of a serious case of alcohol poisoning. He would've been discharged from the navy, but the UNSC needed every man or women they could get. He was, however, demoted again to Private, third class.

"Feels good to relax after a day in hell." Kyle murmured.

"Yeah… good." Cody agreed.

"Attention to all Spartans, your armor repair process is now complete. Please head over to the armory to pick up your armor. Five minutes till we exit slipspace. All ODSTs and designated Spartansplease get in positions, good luck. Corbec out." The Captain said over the COM.

"Let's go!" Kyle grinned. The Spartans then walked towards the armory.

1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Inside The Sparta/ Command bridge

"Attention to all Spartans, your armor repair process is now complete. Please head over to the armory to pick up your armor. Five minutes till we exit slipspace. All ODSTs and designated Spartans please get in positions, good luck. Corbec out." Captain Corbec said over the COM. From what he heard over the transmission that came from Alpha base, things were not going so well.

Captain Corbec was to drop an army of, oh say, 100 ODSTs joined with ten spartans in the outlying area around the base. Then, he'd fill up six Pelicans with as many Spartans and marines as he could. From there, they would land in Alpha base and protect it till reinforcements arrived from the battle cluster.

"Sir! Exiting slipspace in five, four three, two, one…" The Sparta exited slipspace and entered the Sol system.

"All ODSTs and Spartans in position?" Corbec asked. The one hundred ODST signals and the ten Spartan signals flashed green… they were ready to go.

"Good luck people." One hundred and ten drop pods were released from The Sparta and entered Earths atmosphere. Soon, the drop pods were dots in the distance.

"Okay, all Spartans and marines please enter the Pelican dropships and get ready for takeoff." Captain Corbec ordered. Soon, just as well, the Pelican dropships were dots in the distance…


	7. Chapter 19

Section IV: Defense of Alpha Base

Chapter 19

1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

North side/ Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth

Cameron opened the drop pod and rushed out into the muddy area. It was raining heavily as Cameron looked around. Nearby, ten identical drop pods laid in a cluster. The drop pods had been reprogrammed to fall in clusters of ten ODSTs and one spartan around Alpha Base, therefore, a defensive screen of ODSTs would be able to clear out any Covenant invaders. Cameron grabbed his MA5B assault rifle and joined the ten ODSTs waiting for him. They needed to "rinse" out the area of one kilometer and then head towards Alpha Base, so the sooner they did it the better.

The two ODSTs armed with sniper rifles aimed their weapons at the mountain side and started to open fire. The three jackal snipers that had been positioned there fell down and lay where they landed… dead. Ahead in a small, narrow canyon, Cameron saw a Phantom hovering over what seemed like an old rockslide and knew that hundreds of Covenant could be concealed in the rocks.

"Grenades, on my mark… MARK!" Cameron ordered. The eleven humans in unison; threw their fragmentation grenades at the rocks. There was a scream of fright when… BOOM! Handfuls of dead grunts, jackals, and drones flew into the air. The other Covenant who had been concealed not far from the explosion, however, had been alerted by the explosion and charged in en masse.

"Open fire!" Cameron yelled. Five ODSTs armed with assault rifles kneeled down and fired a hail of bullets at the approaching Covenant. Three ODSTs stood behind the five ODSTs and doubled over with their BR55 rifles. The Covenant took cover behind the rocks. The two ODSTs armed with sniper rifles went on opposite sides of the formation and joined in. Elites crouched behind the rocks and raised their plasma rifles over their heads. Blue plasma lanced by the humans followed by green plasma. A plasma bolt caught an ODST in the side and the soldier fell down, writhing in pain.

"Suppressing fire!" Cameron yelled as a swarm of Drones flew from their hiding spots. Cameron raised his assault rifle, switched it to spread mode, and fired a hail of lead at the approaching aliens. The Drones saw the meat grinder they were headed to and tried to turn back… too late. As the last Drone fell to the ground a large team of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals charged forward.

"Grenades people!" An ODST sergeant yelled. BAM! The Covenant were thrown back from the powerful explosion. Several grunts were trying to crawl away but seeing that the Phantom was retreating, they knew they were good as dead. The survivors were easily put down by a hail of bullets.

Cameron aimed his assault rifle at the surrounding area and saw that no Covenant emerged.

"Good job people, now let's go see what they were doing." Cameron said. He led the nine surviving ODSTs to the back of the small canyon and saw a crashed warthog. Lying next to the warthog, were three dead marines which all of them were armed with…

"Rocket launchers…" An ODST murmured. The team of humans retreated from the canyon and headed towards Alpha Base; they were done for now.

1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

West side/ Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth

After joining up with Evan's team of ODSTs, Smith led the 22 humans on their, "Two kilometer rinse". They had come up on a crashed Pelican and picked up several infantry weapons and a single warthog. Three ODSTs had been sent ahead in the warthog to scout around. There had been no word from them yet.

Smith walked through the rainy canopy and looked around. His motion tracker had picked up several movements. Then he saw them. The warthog's remains had several plasma burns, it seemed like a plasma grenade had been stuck on the vehicle. A few steps forward and Smith came across the three ODSTs. They were dead.

"Stay sharp team, this seems mighty like an ambush…" Smith muttered. He was right. Two ghosts piloted by grunts, boosted forward and attempted to run over the humans. Smith rolled to the side and shot one of the drivers with his battle rifle. The other ghost, however, had driven on.

"Agghhh!" Evan cried out but was immediately cut off. The single ghost had boosted straight over and killed the spartan.

One ODST cursed angrily and shot the fuel tank on one of the ghost's wings. It landed on Evan's dead body and exploded; completely desinigrating everything within three feet of the ghost.

Smith saw Evan's right hand fly past and cursed.

"Watch out! More Covenant!" Smith yelled. A pair of Hunters followed by two Elite's and four Grunts emerged from the thick jungle. One hunter fired its fuel rod cannon and narrowly missed Smith's head. The tree behind him burst into flames, rain slowly started to put the fire out.

"Attack!" Smith yelled. He threw a grenade and took cover. The four grunts and one of the Elites were torn apart by the shrapnel... the last Elite was wounded.

"Yes! Now let's take care of those hunters!" Smith cried out. The Hunters, however, had different things in mind. They fired their fuel rod cannons at a group of ODSTs and were rewarded with several screams of pain. An ODST sniper, who had survived from the fuel rod blast, raised his sniper rifle single handedly, and fired it randomly at the Hunter. Maybe it was a lucky shot, but as the ODST sighed heavily and died, the hunter fell down… headless.

Smith saw the hunter go down and looked at the other. Enraged that its bond brother died, it raised its spines and charged forwards. Several ODSTs jumped out of the way, yet some unfortunate ones were cut in half.

Smith watched hopelessly as his ODSTs died… he needed to do something… and fast. Suddenly it dawned on him. A good leader has to be ready to sacrifice his men for his life, or his life for his men. Smith thought. He took out his combat knife and waited for the hunter to charge at him. He jumped up and grabbed the beast's spines. The Spartan then grabbed the Hunter's neck and shoved a frag inside its armor. The last the Spartan saw was a fiery explosion…

1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth

The six Pelicans flew through the rain on their way to Alpha Base. The sky was dark, there was fog everywhere, it marked the beginning of a hard, long, tedious battle. Kyle entered the cockpit and saw Alpha Base loom into view… almost hidden in the fog. Below, several drop pods littered the surrounding landscape. Seven of the ten teams sent to "flush" or "rinse" the area out were slowly walking back. The three other teams were deemed KIA.

Everything seemed miserable; it was surprising that a few hours ago everyone was relaxed and happy.

The six Pelicans landed in the middle of Alpha Base and the humans filed out. Kyle looked around and saw many wounded Marines, soaked in the rain, lying next to the walls clutching their weapons as though clinging to dear life. Kyle noticed several tactical mistakes inside the castle-like base. The warthogs were parked behind the scorpion tanks, turrets were set at the most random places; they needed to get to work. Alpha Base was simply a large rectangular, medieval wall two or three miles long surrounding a few scattered buildings with only one entrance in the north. Kyle ordered several marines of the 500 in groups of 16 to guard every few feet of wall. Four snipers, four rocket launchers, four marines armed with assault rifles or battle rifles, four marines armed with shotguns for point blank but would be manning turrets for the time being. Spartans were spread out to command each group of sixteen, all armed with the weapon of their choice. The leftover marines were sent to the walls and provide covering fire or formed into groups of forty, each group would be armed with sniper rifles, rocket launchers, or regular assault weapons. They were the solid teams, teams only armed with the same type of weapons. The ODSTs sent on the "kilometer long rinse" mission were sent outside the titanium alloy gate with the vehicles… which were now in their correct positions. Several vehicles had been placed inside the wall just in case the Covenant would get inside. The vehicles would also serve for a heavy, anti-air defense in case an enemy flying vehicle would be able to fly above the base.

They had air vehicles too, besides the pelicans; they had a new UNSC vehicle called the "Shortsword flier." Pretty much a smaller version of the Longsword fighter except the Shortsword was pretty much a human equivalent of the Banshee. 55mm chain guns, a single scorpion rocket launcher, and a second seat for the copilot who would man the back turret. It was a highly maneuverable aircraft. After several hours of rearranging, Kyle had turned Alpha Base into a well defended, hard to crack, powerhouse.

"Any Covenant approaching Cody?" Kyle asked.

"Searching… no, wait! Several ground troops are approaching, radars show at least 600 infantry, and several assorted vehicles. Twenty, no, twenty-five phantoms are coming into sensor range, banshee fliers too… all ground troops are coming from the North and West wall, aircraft are only coming from the west. We're gonna have one hell of a time." Cody replied anxiously.

"Let's do it then." Kyle smiled. The humans were ready, ready for anything…


	8. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

0500 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth

"Snipers! Split up in two groups, one group go to the north, the other to the west, got it!" Kyle ordered.

"Sir yes sir!" The snipers shouted.

"Good, rocket launchers, you guys head to the west wall. All marines with assault weapons, you men head through the gate, let's go!"

The three solid teams rushed to their positions and stood at ready.

"Cameron, Cody, Philip… you guys get over here." Kyle said over the COM. The four Spartans rushed towards Kyle's position.

"Yeah?" Philip asked.

"Okay, Cody, you're in charge of the assault team, Philip; you're in charge of the rocket team, Cameron, you lead the snipers."

"Yes sir!" Everyone said as they saluted.

"Good luck."

"Wait for it… fire! Salvo two… fire!" Philip yelled as he fired his rocket launcher. A total of 41 rockets joined by another 41 rockets making a total of 82 flew towards the oncoming aircraft. The first Phantom was utterly destroyed, about twenty rockets to its nose. The Phantom exploded and engulfed the second Phantom in blue flames. The third Phantom swerved to the right, narrowly dodging the swarm of rockets. The fourth Phantom, however, took a full blast of rockets and was sent plummeting to the ground.

"Fire again!" Philip shouted. Another 82 rockets flew towards the Covenant aircraft. Seven rockets impacted on the third Phantom, thus crippling it, the fifth Phantom crashed into the crippled dropship and both exploded.

Finally realizing that they would all be destroyed if they kept it up, the Phantoms spread out. Half the remaining rockets swerved around, tracking the Phantoms, the vast majority of them, however, flew on and impacted on one unlucky Phantom.

"Fire at will!" Philip shouted as he tracked one Phantom. Soon, salvo after salvo of rockets flew towards the aircraft. Dropships exploded in blue flames, Covenant were killed, and only a fifth of the aircraft survived, but they still advanced. A few abused Banshees flew full speed towards the base's wall and sprayed a stream of boiling plasma at the humans. Several members of the team fell down under the waves of energy before they ducked behind the wall. Philip stood there however, overshields activated, he took down one banshee after another, finally, the last banshee exploded and the remaining members of the team emerged from their cover.

The Phantoms had moved closer, much closer, in fact, close enough to return fire. Lances of boiling energy lashed all around the rocket team, several more marines died. The surviving marines returned fire and sent most of the bastards to hell.

Behind them, a group of pilots had entered their Pelicans and Shortswords. The group of aircraft rose above the ground and flew to engage the enemy. A Pelican's chin gun stuttered and let loose a wave of armor piercing bullets… which completely shredded three battered Phantoms. Shortsword fliers flew around the area spraying the Covenant aircraft with missiles and lead. Banshees crashed into Phantoms, which in turn exploded and crashed into other Phantoms. Soon, the entire wave of aircraft had been turned to smoldering bits of metal…

Cameron aimed his sniper rifle at the Covenant and fired. There were over hundreds of them; from grunts to jackals, elites to hunters, swarms of drones. Not to mention the powerful Covenant mortar tanks… the Wraiths. One Wraith tank turned and fired a blue comet of plasma at the defense cluster guarding the entrance. The comet slowly started to descend and almost made contact with the Scorpion tank when a Warthog got in the way; the human vehicle and its inhabitants were lost in blue flames.

Back on the base's wall, the sniper team fired another line of sniper bullets, rows upon rows of Covenant troops fell down under the hail of powerful armor piercing rounds. Cameron aimed his sniper rifle at the Wraith tank and shot the tank's cockpit. The little purple piece of armor guarding the driver fell off and the elite inside it had a sniper bullet pass through its head.

"There!" Cameron yelled. "Aim for those Hunters!" A quarter of the members of the sniper team turned their sniper rifles in the direction of the heavily armored aliens and let loose on them. A total of forty sniper bullets pounded the Hunter's shields, finally, some lucky shots found their way through the unprotected parts of the Hunter's armor.

"SNIPER!" A marine screamed. Several marines ducked or ran for cover. One marine, however, stood in her place. The marine fired her sniper rifle single handedly and, after three more shots, collapsed.

Cameron sprinted towards the marine and saw a large gaping hole in her body armor. A beam of a Covenant sniper rifle had passed straight through the marine, yet somehow she still managed to take down her opponent. The UNSC needed men and women like that soldier…

"Get back to position! Drive these aliens back to where they came from!" Cameron ordered. The marines quickly returned to their positions and resumed their sniping.

A few Shortswords flew over the sniping humans and sprayed the advancing troops with lead. Rows upon rows of grunts, elites, jackals, drones, and hunters fell under the spray of 102mm rounds. A Wraith tank exploded; having a Scorpion missile to its front, and engulfed several Covenant soldiers, who were unlucky enough to stand near it, in blue flames.

"Look at that!" A marine yelled as he pointed towards the trees. A fleet of Ghosts were emerging from the misty undergrowth and were quickly approaching the human base. The human snipers simultaneously fired their sniper rifles at the Covenant scout vehicles. A few Ghosts abruptly blew up from multiple shots, completely desinigrating the driver. Other Ghosts, hit by more precise snipers, stopped moving as they were now driverless. The rest, however, continued on.

"Quickly! Destroy them all before they can reach the gate!" Cameron yelled. A few more Ghosts exploded as a hail of sniper bullets were bestowed upon them, but there was no way they could destroy them all with sniper rifles.

Suddenly, a large team of marines joined the snipers, each one of them had rocket launchers.

"Need some help?" Philip grinned. The marines fired two salvos of rockets at the oncoming Ghosts, reloaded, and fired again. Several 102mm tracking rockets made direct hits on the Ghosts, literally blowing them up in blue flames. Other rockets missed their marks but detonated as they hit clusters of Covenant infantry, several Grunts and Jackals were thrown into the air.

The humans started to unleash a merciless rain of bullets, and rockets upon the enemy… soon, the Covenant army slowly started to fade…

"Assault rifle and SMG wielding people up front, let's go marines!" Cody yelled. The twenty assault rifle and SMG wielding marines ran up front, kneeled down, and started to spray an impressive 25 rounds per second.

"Battle rifles, get behind 'em! Shotguns, spread out and knock out any damn Covie that tries to get past us! Move out! GO GO GO!" Cody shouted. Soon, a large formation had been set and Covenant started to fall. Cody leveled his assault rifle at a nearby red armored Elite and put a three round burst through its head.

"How do you like that split lip!" Cody laughed.

"Swords!" A marine screamed. Several gold armored Elites were brandishing their energy swords and sprinting to the formation.

Trying to break the formation eh? Cody thought. "What are you guys waiting for! Open fire!"

"Hell yes, sir!" A marine replied. A hail of bullets and shotgun shells rushed towards the advancing sword wielding Elites and impacted upon the alien's energy shields. Three Elites were ripped apart by the wave of armor piercing bullets, others just lost their shields.

From above, several sniper bullets slashed through the air and made contact with the unshielded Elites. After a few more salvos of armor piercing rounds, only a single lucky Elite had managed to get close enough to lunge towards an assault rifle wielding marine… just as Kyle blasted its head off.

"Heh, heh, heh… You should see what I just set up!" Kyle sniggered. Four Pelicans flew over Alpha Base's wall and started to drop hundreds of Lotus anti-tank mines on the Covenant army. Soon dirt, dead bodies, and bits of metal started to erupt all around the battlefield. The screams of hundreds of Covenant were deafening over the explosions, the "cracks" of the sniper rifles, the distant thunder, and the sounds of automatic weapons fire.

"YES! We're winning! Now let's give it everything we've got! CHARGE!" Kyle yelled. Kyle, Cody, and the team of marines charged forward, and completely slaughtered the surviving Covenant. Surviving Spectres and Wraiths were pummeled by the Scorpion tanks resting around the base's entrance. Clusters of Grunts, Jackals, and Elites barely had enough time to blink in the rain before they fell under a merciless hail of bullets. Humanity was getting revenge for the millions of lost lives sacrificed for the war… and soon, the battlefield was silent…


	9. Chapter 21 SEX

Sex Installation- Andrew and Monica

"_Get ready for landing Spartans!" Corbec said over the speakers. "You'll leave in exactly two waves of ODSTs, that's four hours, Corbec out." _

After taking a moment to register the message, Andrew walked over to his cot and, thinking that this was his only chance of getting sleep for many weeks to come, flicked off the lights and laid back on it. Andrew thought of the fight in High Charity, it seemed so that no matter where they went, trouble would always find them. Knowing that Monica was alright, Andrew pushed the thought of the fight in the "Holy City" out of his mind… but he couldn't. What if Monica's life were to be put at stake again?

Suddenly, his door opened and someone entered the room and made all his thoughts disappear. Her silhouette reflected by the soft starlight outside the window, Monica drifted closer to the bed Andrew was lying down on and Andrew felt another body lye next to him. Andrew tried to say something but no words came out… he was speechless. He felt around and touched Monica's vagina, it was something out of a dream. As Andrew licked Monica's neck, he inserted his penis inside Monica's vagina and started to release his sperm.

"Oh Andrew… I love you so much." Monica moaned.

"I love you too." Andrew replied as he pulled out his penis from Monica's vagina. Monica grabbed the end of Andrew's penis and stuck it in her mouth. Andrew, whose head was now pointing towards Monica's legs, started to lick Monica's vagina.

"Andrew, maybe we should stop, if we get caught…" Monica started.

"We won't get caught." Andrew said firmly. But Monica started pushing, after a few seconds of struggling; Monica lashed out her foot, and kicked Andrew in his penis.

"Uggghhh!" Andrew groaned. He toppled off Monica's body and fell to the floor, clutching his penis and groaning in pain. Monica tried to rush out the door but Andrew had his leg lying out. Monica tripped and landed on top of Andrew again.

"Oh what the hell!" Monica said. She started to kiss Andrew, suck his penis, and rub her vagina against Andrew's face as Andrew sucked on Monica's vagina, kiss her, and rub his penis against _her_ face.

There, they had sex for a blissfully long time….


	10. Chapter 22 through 29 Enjoy!

Chapter 22

0900 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Heading towards the SPARTAN Armory/ The Sparta/ In orbit over Earth

"If anyone else finds out," Monica started.

"They won't." Andrew replied shortly as the two Spartans headed towards the Armory to pick up their MJOLNIR armor. The hallways were crowded, Marines and Naval crew members alike were rushing everywhere, totally ignoring all of their surroundings.

"Okay, we're here." Monica said as she pointed to a door labeled: "Armory- SPARTAN". The two humans went through the door and entered a large room filled with complicated looking devices and rows upon rows of weapons lockers. Suddenly, a door on the other side of the room opened and a technician came through.

Spotting the two Spartans, the technician said, "Oh, you must be here to pick up your armor?"

Andrew nodded.

"Okay then, follow me… you'll like the changes we've added to them." The tech said as he waved the two Spartans through a door. The humans entered another room, it was twice a large as the armory, and it was packed with motion. Techs rushed around, only pausing to salute at the two Spartans as AIs took control of many robotic arms. The tech led the Spartans to a large glass dome in the middle of the area and turned around.

"Okay, we've upgraded your suits and I think you guys will like them." The tech grinned as he walked over to a control panel and pressed a button. The glass dome opened and revealed two suits of MJOLNIR armor. They looked almost exactly alike as their old armor except for a few minor changes. The "battery sack" on the back of the armor looked almost twice as large as the old armor, and several areas of MJOLNIR armor had silver patches.

"I present to you, the MJOLNIR Juggernaut!" The technician said proudly. "It has twice the speed as its counterparts, the energy shielding is a tad bit stronger, it can store up energy for and overshield much faster, and, see these silver armor plating? They house micro shield generators, very useful if your main shields have been knocked out and you can't recharge them. Besides creating a secondary shield, they can effectively give you an eight second cloaking, it's pretty much like those stealth Elite's active camouflage."

Andrew was stunned, humanity didn't have any type of full body camouflage, and this could give him new options in battle.

"_Spartans 249 and 250, please report to the bridge after you get on your armor, we have a slight change of plans." _Captain Corbec said over the intercom.

"Huh? But we still have about 0200 hours till ETA!" Monica exclaimed.

"I know, c'mon, I don't think we should be keeping the Captain waiting." Andrew replied. "Let's get our armor on and get to the bridge."

0930 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

The Sparta's Bridge/ The Sparta/ In orbit over Earth

_The Generation_ drifted closer to The Sparta as Captain Derrick Corbec anxiously watched the viewscreen.

"There it is again, that whisper is getting a bit stronger." Bastila said.

"Brief me." Captain Corbec said shortly.

"Seems like a large Covenant ship, maybe a Flagship or a Main Capital Ship, wait, slipspace ruptures… there it is." Bastila replied. Corbec gazed in grave silence as the largest Covenant ship ever seen in human history, besides the ship that left High Charity, enter the Earth's system. It was the size of about four Covenant Carriers put together.

"Nieger, contact The Generation and tell them to make ready, LeRiche, arm Archer missile pods A through F, charge up both of our MAC guns, and get ready to give em' hell."

"Aye sir." Nieger and LeRiche replied in unison.

Nearby, Corbec saw The Generation's lone MAC gun charge up and arm 50 of its 200 Archer missile pods. The Sparta put on a single burst of speed and drifted closer to The Generation, both ships released their single ships.

"Spartans 249 and 250, please report to the bridge after you get on your armor, we have a slight change of plans." Corbec said over the intercom. "Nieger, tell The Generation engage when I give the signal."

"Yes sir." Nieger whispered. The door leading to the bridge opened up and two Spartans, one dressed in teal colored armor, while the other in tan, entered the bridge.

"Spartans 249 and 250 reporting as requested sir!" Spartan-249 saluted.

"At ease." Corbec replied, though he was everything other than at ease. "See that ship? If it comes within range of the fleet, who knows what's gonna happen. You know the stunt pulled off by Spartan-117 and two others in year 2525?"

"Yes sir, the frigate, The Commonwealth, punched a hole in a Covenant ship and allowed three Spartans to board it, set up a nuke, and left… just as the nuke detonated." Spartan-249 replied.

"Feel like replaying history?" Corbec asked. The Spartan looked at his fellow Spartan, nodded, and replied, "Yes sir."

"Good, hurry and get what you need, once we knock out their shields, I'm going to release a wave of 20 ODST drop pods at the ship, they'll help you… good luck."

0945 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

ODST drop pod launch area/ The Sparta/ In orbit over Earth

"Okay, you grab a BR55, a few grenades, a sidearm or two wouldn't hurt, and a missile tactical nuke, we're going light on this mission." Andrew said as he grabbed and MA5B assault rifle, an M90 Shotgun, a few frags, extra clips and a pack of shotgun shells, and a med pack.

"I don't consider a nuke that light." Monika grinned as she grabbed her weapons and entered an HEV, otherwise known as a Human Entry Vehicle. Andrew nodded and entered his HEV.

"_Ready? I'll release you in 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1!"_ Captain Corbec said over the COM. Andrew felt his stomach lurch as the ground beneath the HEV opened up and felt the HEV freefall through outer space.

Through the viewscreen, Andrew saw both The Sparta and The Generation open fire on the large Covenant Main Capital Ship. Thousands of Archer missiles streaked through space closely followed by 9 MAC rounds. The MAC rounds struck, and the Covenant ship's shields flickered, but still held, barely. But the Archer missile pods struck shortly afterwards, and the Covenant ship's shields faded. But the enemy ship fought back. The plasma turrets on the Covenant ship's side glowed and beams of plasma shot through space. The Sparta took a direct hit, and one of her MAC guns was turned into molten slag.

"_Enemy singleships, seems like they're gonna try to take us out before we land!" _Monica said over the COM. She was right; a small swarm of Covenant Seraph fighters flew towards the HEVs and opened fire.

"We need a little help over here!" Andrew cried out over the COM.

"_On our way." _The cool, never flinch voice of a Longsword interceptor pilot replied. A flock of Longswords flew over the fast approaching HEVs and released a stream of missiles and bullets.

Andrew looked down at the mission screen and read: Distance till impact: 99K.

"Get ready!!!" Andrew yelled over the COM. He felt his HEV lurch in the direction of a hole a MAC round had struck through the hull. He looked at the viewscreen and saw 21 other HEVs follow closely behind him. Everything was going splendidly well.

Suddenly the HEV shook violently and felt the HEV crash into the Covenant ship. Andrew waited there for a few seconds and heard 21 more crashes. The Spartan kicked open the HEV, grabbed his weapons, and emerged. He looked around and saw 20 ODSTs and Monica emerging from their HEVs. The humans had landed….

Author's Note: "Thanks for reading everyone!!! I give my thanks to Bungie, all me mates, readers, and… SOUTH PARK!!! South Park rules!!! Thank you!" : )

Chapter 23

1000 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Covenant Main Capital Ship/ En Route to ship's fusion core/ In orbit over Earth

Three hardened bullets coughed from Andrew's assault rifle and three Jackals fell down, all dead from headshots. The 23 humans turned another corridor and ran strait into a pair of Brutes, both seemed mildly surprised at the sight of the human opposition. Both were about to open fire with their brute shots but had their necks sliced open as Monica leapt over them and slashed at them with her combat knife.

"Strange, all we've seen on this ship are Brutes, Drones, and Jackals." Monica inquired as she nudged one of the dead aliens with her foot. Andrew had noticed it as well, in fact, he hadn't seen any sign of the common Grunt, the commanding Elites, or the occasional pair of Hunters. They had run into mostly Jackals, none of them wielding a glowing energy shield, which was also strange.

The team of humans continued their path to the ship's fusion core when they entered another room. It was easily huge, and the battle raging inside it was easily larger.

Below the humans, there was a large mass of Jackals, Brutes, Drones, Grunts, Elites, and a single Hunter. The strange part was, they were all fighting against each other. Seven blue armored Elites, who were wielding plasma rifles, formed themselves into a rough "delta" formation and fired blue plasma bolts at the attacking Brutes, Jackals, and Drones as several Grunts provided a fine spray of green plasma for cover fire.

"How are we supposed to get through _that_?" An ODST inquired.

"Easy." Andrew muttered. With that, he jumped into the raging battle below.

1000 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth

Alpha Base was going to fall, no matter what. Kyle knew that the moment hundreds of dropships and Seraph fighters flew over Alpha Base. The lone MAC cannon took out about half their number, but it seemed like hundreds more took their place.

All UNSC personnel and their vehicles to retreat to the base… thus were saving countless lives. But now the humans were holed up inside their own base. Kyle grinned, it was just like a replay of the Alamo… except Santa Anna's cannon fire was replaced with plasma mortar.

Time was running out for the residents of Alpha Base, but Kyle was determined to take out as many Covenant S.O.Bs with it as he could.

"Okay! This is it people!" Kyle announced to the crowd of Techs, Marines, ODSTs, and Spartans. "We have a crowd of Helljumpers coming in 0100 hours time. We have to last that long. So harden up and show these Covenant bastards whose boss!"

The speech had the effect most "end of battle" speeches had. More than half of the humans were now standing tall, their expressions of despair now replaced with courage.

"Get ready! They're braking in!" Philip and Cameron yelled in unison. Kyle spun around to take a look at the only entrance to the base. It was glowing red.

"Set up a defense perimeter around the gate! Tanks in back, Warthogs up front. Spread out everyone!" Kyle yelled. "Get ready for point defense!"

For five whole minutes, the humans waited in stony silence as the titanium alloy gate turned from red, to blue, and finally to white. Then the gate exploded… allowing an army of Covenant Elites, Grunts, Hunters, and an assortment of their vehicles to boil in. Leading the entire army, was a thin infantry line of white armored Elites, all wielding fuel rod cannons.

"Take those white jockeys out!" A squad commander shouted. Ten marines, four armed with assault rifles, two with battle rifles, three with Covenant needlers, and one with a shotgun, opened up on the advancing Elites. One took a flurry of needles and abruptly blew up as several others were ripped apart by a hail of bullets. But the Elites had fired their guns as well.

Several green blobs flew gracefully, almost slowly, towards the humans. An ODST and three Marines were caught in the blast radius and were thrown back… dead. Other fuel rods cleanly missed their marks.

"Fire at will!" Kyle yelled over the COM. Immediately, the entire army of humans spread out and fired randomly into the mass of Covenant, Grunts screamed and fell under continuous blasts from human shotguns, Marines died at the hands of sword wielding Zealots, and the whole battle was chaos. Kyle sprayed continuous, three round bursts, from his assault rifles as, nearby, Cody punched a hole through an Elite's head and Cameron landed flurries of needles into unlucky targets. Philip had taken the liberty of taking out enemies with his rocket launcher and didn't hesitate to do so. Above the humans, salvos of rockets _whooshed_ overhead and enthusiastically blew up crowds of Covenant, survivors were abruptly put down by a hail of bullets that came from a few turret implacements, which were manned by ODSTs.

Spartans played a huge role in the battle as well. One fired an entire magazine from his assault rifle into a few skittering Ghosts and took them out in pairs. A trio of Spartans, who all wielded shotguns, went up close and put holes into the chests of unlucky Grunts and Elites.

For a second, Kyle thought the humans were winning, until an ODST yelled, "What the –blam- is that?!" and a Warthog with all its passengers were lifted high into the air and were smashed into the ground. Kyle looked up and saw the hugest living creature ever seen since the dinosaurs. It was the size of five hunters stacked on top of each other, and was easily twice a wide. It had a helmet on; in the middle of it was a single eye-shaped visor. In one hand it held a large, clublike weapon which sparked when the beast waved it around. In the other hand was a large fuel rod cannon, similar to a Hunter's. _Bam!_ A nearby tank fired a Scorpion tank shell into the beast, and it howled in pain and anger. It pointed it's cannon in the direction of the Scorpion tank and fired.

For a second, it looked like a thin ribbon of energy, but something went wrong, the thin ribbon started growing, and growing, finally, the tank exploded, and the beam left a five meter wide crater in its place.

"We need to take that thing out!" Cody yelled as it swung it's clublike weapon at a group of battling Marines, Elites, Grunts, and a single Hunter; totally smashing the entire group.

"Yeah, all vehicle personnel, make that behemoth a primary target!" Kyle yelled over the COM. In unison, the tanks and Warthog turrets all faced the huge beast and opened fire all at once. After a few seconds of continuous firing, the beast roared in sympathy, took a tank shell to the chest, and finally fell to the ground… dead.

"Uh oh, I think its gun has a fail safe! Take cover people!!" Philip yelled from above. The humans who came to inspect the dead hulk of the beast turned and ran… just in time. The cannon exploded and engulfed every single thing in a 20 meter radius in emerald flames.

"Good, now that we took _that_ out we need to take _them_ out." Cameron grinned. Kyle looked around and hundreds of alien faces greeted him… all hungry for the human's blood…

1020 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Covenant Main Capital Ship/ En Route to ship's fusion core/ In orbit over Earth

Andrew slammed the butt of his assault rifle into the back of a Brute, snapped its spine, slung his assault rifle, and drew his M90 shotgun, handy for the current battle. The Spartan looked up and saw Monica and the 20 ODSTs jump obediently from the balcony behind him.

"Spray these guys with lead!" Andrew grinned. The humans simultaneously fired a full automatic spray of bullets from their various weapons at the crowd of Covenant. Several of them fell under the mighty barrage, but none of them took notice of the humans. It seemed so that they were too busy fighting _each other_ instead of the humans… which was pretty good. Andrew loaded a few shotgun shells into his shotgun's chamber, blew apart a Brute's head, and ran face to face to a gold armored, sword wielding Elite. Andrew paused for three whole seconds, finally remembering the Elite that captured Smith, Evan, and himself on the Covenant ship: The Fabled Prophecy. The alien roared angrily and slashed at the Spartan with its energy sword. Andrew cursed angrily as his shield bar drooped down to half. Andrew, in turn, slammed the barrel of his shotgun into the Elite's chest and pulled the trigger… the alien's shields flickered and faded.

Andrew ducked as the Elite swung at him with its sword again and pulled the trigger of his shotgun… but all he heard was a click.

_Damn! Forgot to reload it!_ Andrew thought angrily. Andrew tried to melee the Elite with his shotgun but the Elite swiftly cut his gun in half. With no time to unsling his MA5B, Andrew drew his M6D pistol and squeezed the trigger, 12 bullets flew from the gun's barrel. Two bullets flew straight and true, they impacted the Elite's shoulder. But the Elite swung away and the other 10 bullets blew the head off a Brute, which was unlucky enough to be behind the gold armored Elite. Andrew spun around, reloading his M6D, and sighted the Elite. He pulled the trigger three times and a trio of bullets flew towards the Elite. But the Elite jumped to the side, drew its plasma rifle, fired a few bolts at the Spartan, and ran away from the battle… two blue armored Elites close behind it.

Andrew cursed as he put his sidearm away and drew his MA5B; he had been so close to getting the kill.

Andrew jumped up to a platform, turned around and noted that the team had made it through, and entered the next room. In the middle of the room, was a beam of energy that was so bright that the Spartan's helmet's visor darkened to protect his vision; it must've been the fusion core. They had made it.

Author's note

"Just to tell the people who are wondering what happened to the Master Chief and Ando Mormoslee, the next section will only have Ando and Yim Yam in it and, after lots of thinking, Master Chief won't be in the story anymore. Sorry everyone!"

Special thanks to: Mutiny, Linda 58, and Grunt Sarge!

Chapter 24

1030 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Covenant Main Capital Ship/ En Route to ship's Drop Pod Bay/ In orbit over Earth

"Arm the nuke, give us 15 minutes, _that_ should give us enough time to get outta' here." Andrew said. "O.K., any way we can get off this ship?"

"Yes, it seems so that there's a Drop Pod Bay via a Detention Block, it's not too far from here." Bastila replied through Andrew's helmet speakers. "Meanwhile, I'll inform the Captain that you armed the nuke."

"Good, let's go." Andrew said as an ODST set the missile tactical nuke nearby the fusion core. Pausing to scoop up a plasma rifle that was on the floor, the Spartan led the team of humans back to the large room. The battle had died out by then, and only a few Jackals who were led by a single Brute remained.

"Frag out!" Monica shouted as she primed, pulled the pin off, and threw the grenade into the group of aliens. The grenade detonated and several of the aliens were thrown backwards, the surviving Jackals were easily put down via several plasma bolts from Andrew's plasma rifle.

"Go back the way we came from and take a left, that should take you to the Main Detention Block." Bastila said. Andrew nodded, poked his head through the door, sighted two spec ops Elites standing on guard, and sprang forward.

One Elite had already fallen from a deadly spine-cracking blow when the other Elite was ripped to pieces from a wave of armor piercing bullets. The humans stepped over the remains of the Elites and entered another corridor which was littered with dead Brutes and Jackals. A single blue armored Elite amongst them, which must've wielded an energy sword due to the point that it still clutched the powerful weapon in its three fingered hand.

The humans went through the corridor without encountering a single alien and took a left where two Covenant energy swords floated in midair.

"Must be more special operations Elites," Andrew whispered. "O.K., you ODSTs…" But an ODST had already yelled out, "Let's get em'!" and the soldiers ran forward. Three ODSTs had already been killed by the time Andrew and Monica took out the alien's shields, showered them with plasma and bullets, and finally, caved in the skull of the last one.

Andrew frowned as he collected the dog tags of the fallen soldiers and, as not to go to waste, collected the soldier's grenades, ammo, and traded the plasma rifle for an M90 Shotgun. They continued on and took another left turn when a team of Brutes and Jackals turned the opposite corner. In unison, the Jackals fired a wave of green plasma at the humans. Plasma washed over Andrew's shields as he took out his MA5B assault rifle and fired a full automatic hail of bullets at the Covenant.

Several Jackals staggered under the armor piercing rounds and were easily finished off, the Brutes, however, fired several grenades out of their brute shots and killed two ODSTs. The surviving 15 ODSTs opened up and fired shotgun shells and armor piercing rounds at the attacking enemy. A few more Jackals fell down under the combined assault of the ODSTs and the two Spartans. After a few more seconds of full automatic assault, the surviving aliens finally fell down.

"There's the Main Detention Block, motion sensors detect no hostiles, it would be wise to take the time to reload and regroup in there." Bastila announced.

Andrew nodded silently and led the team through the door. Through the door was a large, circular room. The room had three levels circling around it, on each story was a prison cell.

"Okay ODSTs, check for any UNSC personnel, don't forget to reload your guns." Andrew said as he leaned against a wall and fed several shotgun shells into it. The ODSTs had already spread out looking for survivors when a female voice spoke behind him.

"Andrew? Is that you?" The voice said. Andrew turned around and saw a Spartan looking through the energy field between them.

1030 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

The Sparta's Bridge/ The Sparta/ In orbit over Earth

"_Sir, we've armed the nuke."_ Bastila said over the COM.

"Good, you better get off that ship soon; I don't think we can hold that ship off much longer." Captain Corbec replied as The Sparta flew through the deceased UNSC carrier's, The Zeus, remains.

"Sir! They're attacking again!" Nieger yelled.

"Emergency thrusters! Fire missile pods N through R!" Corbec yelled as motes of light appeared on the side of the Main Capital Ship. Seven beams lashed out and barely licked The Sparta as it jerked to the left and dodged the rest of the beams. The Sparta's Archer missile pods released a stream of missiles that streaked through space leaving a trail of exhaust behind them.

"They're releasing their single fighters' sir, permission to group attack them with the MAC cannon?" Lt. Miller asked.

"Granted Miller." Corbec replied as several Archer missiles struck the approaching Seraph fighters and the Main Capital Ship's shields alike. The MAC gun charged… and released a stream of electromagnetic energy that barely licked the Covenant ship's shields… but the shields flickered and faded.

"What the hell was that?!" LeRiche cursed.

"Hmmm… seems like the MAC gun took a bit of damage from the plasma beams. It must've melted a bit and merged the tri rounds into one big beam. The range doesn't seem that long though." Miller replied.

"I don't care what happened to the MAC gun, just as long as we can still do that. Nieger, inform the captain of The Generation to cover us, we're gonna skewer this bastard inside out." Corbec said.

Knowing that the humans _inside _the ship couldn't be harmed since the fusion core was pretty much in the middle of the ten mile long and five miles wide ship, Corbec punched in the coordinates and The Sparta flew closer to the Covenant Ship at flank speed.

"Hit em'." Corbec said.

"Aye sir, give me a second to charge this baby up… its away sir." Lt. Miller announced. The MAC gun's electromagnetic beam flew out of the cannon and caressed the Covenant Ship's hull. Several of the lethal plasma turrets blew up, the purple hull of the Covenant ship's hull melted, and unlucky Seraphs that got in the way of the electromagnetic ray blew up.

"Hit em' Generation, make it count!" Corbec yelled through the COM at The Generation. Acknowledging the order, The Generation's single MAC cannon released a three round stream of electromagnetic super dense rounds and overlapping hits made their way deep into the Covenant ship's body.

"It still survived?!" LeRiche said, his eyebrow raised.

"That's why we sent the team inside the ship… and let's hope they get out soon. They only have six minutes…"

1039 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Onboard Covenant Main Capital Ship/ En Route to ship's Drop Pod Bay/ In orbit over Earth

"K…Katy?" Andrew muttered dumbstruck after he smashed the energy field generation holding his fellow Spartan prisoner. "I thought you died on The Socrates!"

"No, they took me and few others though. Oh boy have I missed you!" Katy replied. She then wrapped her arms around Andrew and hugged him. Katy was one of the remaining members of the original Spartan squad, she was the frontline trooper like Andrew, but didn't get along with Monica that well.

"Can we move on _now?" _Monica asked after standing in the corner tsk-tsking.

"Yes, I agree… I don't think The Sparta and The Generation can hold them off much longer. Let's get to the Covenant drop pod bay, get inside the single Phantom docked there, and get our bodies off this ship before things get _really _nasty." Bastila agreed. Andrew looked behind him and saw that 7 technicians and 12 Marines had joined the surviving 10 ODSTs, Monica, and himself. They weren't heavily armed, mostly a series of spare M6Ds, M6Cs, SMGs, MA5Bs, BR55s, M90 Shotguns, plasma pistols, plasma rifles, and a needler.

"Warning! I'm detecting Covenant movement coming closer!" Bastila warned shrilly. Just as to prove her point, the opposite door opened and several white, black, purple, red, and blue armored Elites boiled in the Main Detention Block closely followed by a pair of hunters.

"All techs get back!" Andrew yelled. "Marines and ODSTs spread out!" The humans obediently obeyed, the techs backed up into cells, behind walls, anywhere that would provide cover and allow them to provide cover fire. The surviving ODSTs and the released Marines spread out and fired a constant stream of armor piercing bullets, shotgun shells, blue and green plasma, and pink needles. Andrew kept up a constant stream of bullets from his MA5B assault rifle as Monica and Katy, who was kneeling on either side of him, took turns firing their shotguns. The three Spartans quickly took out a single white armored Elite and three red armored veteran Elites.

The rest of the humans however, didn't take out the enemy that easily. The others didn't focus on a single target at a time, they opened fire on any alien that passed them. Thus, it allowed the Elites to recharge their shields. Andrew took notice of that.

"Listen up everyone! Focus on only one target a time and remain constant fire on it… we'll take out the Hunters." Andrew ordered. The moment the humans heard the order, they easily took out all the blue and white armored Elites, only three red armored Elites and the two Hunters, who seemed to think it was appropriate to throw themselves into the battle at this time, remained. One Hunter charged forward and lashed out its spines at Katy. In response, Katy leapt out of the way, pushed the barrel of her shotgun into the Hunter's unprotected part, and blasted it in half. Meanwhile, Andrew pushed the other Hunter back with a 60 round stream from his assault rifle; Monica did the honors and blasted its head off. The remaining Elites were taken out from the combined assault of the techs, the Marines, and the ODSTs.

"Good! Now let's hurry up and get on that Phantom!" Andrew said seeing that they had only a few losses and knew it could've been worse.

The countdown timer read: 00 and the Covenant Main Capital Ship blew up behind them. Safely nestled inside the captured Phantom, the humans made their way to the safe hangar of The Sparta. The ship was badly damaged, but her fight was over. But Andrew, Monica, and Katy still had another mission left over. Kyle and the rest of the Spartans were still on Earth, and they needed help…

Author's note

"Sorry that this chapter was late, I didn't have a lot of time! Thanks to: Linda 58, scary guy 293, Yayap15, nighthunder, Grunt Sarge, and everyone else who's reading my fanfiction! Thanks for reading everyone!"

Section IIV: Rescue

Chapter 25

0800 units, January 25, 2552 (Covenant Military Calendar)

In orbit over Delta Halo / Fabled Prophecy/ Makeshift Council Chamber

Ando Mormoslee entered the "Council Chamber" of the Fabled Prophecy and looked around. As far as he could see, his fellow Elites, all in armor of many colors, council Grunts, who ran all over the place, and Hunters, who stood as motionless and silent as statues in a corner, filled the entire room. The Elite passed by a pair of Honor Guards, both who were wielding their ceremonial spears, and continued on his way to the council meeting.

"We shall have order in this meeting now!" The famed Supreme Commander, otherwise known as Half-Jaw among most of the Covenant, boomed.

"It is alright Commander." Another Elite replied. Gasps and murmurs were heard around the Council Chamber as an Elite in gray, ceremonial armor emerged. He was the "Holy Arbiter".

"Arbiter has save us all! All hail Arbiter!" Squeaked a council Grunt dressed in silver. The entire group in the Council Chamber burst into hoots, applause, and chants. The Arbiter smiled the best an Elite could, he then raised his hand motioning for silence and continued, "I am sorry everyone, but now is not the time to celebrate. Though the battle for Delta Halo is not yet over, I have some very important things to announce, first off, we are now allied with the humans." More murmurs were heard throughout the chamber.

Ando felt light headed, after years of slaughtering the humans one by one, they were now allies? The idea was absurd to say the least.

Ignoring the murmurs, the Arbiter talked on, "Yes, it is strange but it is so. In fact, it is thanks to two humans, who are currently onboard our current flagship, that we are all alive. I will tell you more, but now is not the time.

"First, one of our Main Capital Ships was recently taken over by Brutes and is currently about to launch itself into slipspace. We've been in contact with some of our forces on that ship and we've confirmed that hundreds of our kind, Grunts, and Hunters are about to be ruthlessly slaughtered. We need one or two high ranking Elites to lead a rescue mission, any volunteers?"

The crowd gathered at the council chamber fidgeted around.

"I will." Ando said, bravely raising his hand.

"And I will accompany him." Said the Commander of the Fabled Prophecy.

"Excellent, please head towards the debriefing room, I will be with you in a moment. Now, about the Flood…"

Ando Mormoslee anxiously waited in the Debriefing Room when the door opened and the Arbiter, along with 15 minor blue armored Elites and 20 Grunts, Yim Yam among them, entered the room.

"I am sorry about the rankings of these Elites Gold Commander, your squad had to be sent somewhere else, but these are good warriors, they will serve you well. Now, head to the armory to pick up anything you need and get inside a Phantom. We'll take out the Capital Ship's shields, after we take out their shields, fly into one of the ship's escape hatches or hangars. From there, your only support will be any remaining troops in the ship and your squad. Good luck." The Arbiter said.

Ando nodded at the Commander and led the troops out the debriefing room to the hangar armory. The door closed behind them leaving the Arbiter to brief the other Elites on their missions.

0830 units, January 25, 2552 (Covenant Military Calendar)

In orbit over Delta Halo / En route to Main Capital Ship

"Warriors! Grab what you need; this mission is going to be rough and long. Ando, you might need this sword." The Commander announced. He then tossed an energy sword at Ando, who plucked it out of the air.

"Thank you Commander, all troops, please enter the hangar and get in the Phantom." Ando said as he also grabbed a plasma rifle and a plasma pistol.

"Let's go kick hairy Brute butt!" Yim Yam squeaked. The other Grunts raised their plasma weapons and needlers and chanted, "Brute butt!"

"_Ando, we are currently engaging the Main Capital ship, launch on my mark… MARK!"_ The Supreme Commander's voice said over the COM. In response, the Commander tapped a few controls and the Phantom lifted off. A few Seraph fighters flew by to engage the similar of Brute Seraph fighters. Blue plasma filled the battlefield.

Ando manned one of the Phantom's plasma turrets, scored a direct hit on a nearby enemy Seraph fighter, and sent it tumbling out of control.

"Gunners! Aim for that escape pod hatch! We're going to land in it!" The Commander shouted from the pilot seat. Ando sighted the escape pod hatch and sent a stream of red plasma at the hatch along with two others. Slowly but surely, the outer part of the hatch melted away allowing the escape pod to fly free and directly hit a Brute Seraph fighter.

"Hang on!" The Commander yelled. The Phantom slammed into the interior of the escape pod hatch and lay where it landed.

Ando poked his head out of the Phantom's emergency exit, aimed his plasma rifle, and jumped out… quickly followed by the Commander, the Elites, and the Grunts. At the escape pod hatch's entrance, a blue Elite was burning away the door as Yim Yam and Pi Pi stood on opposite sides, ready to rush in. The door fell down with a _Clang!_ And the Grunts ran through.

Inside were a few surprised Brutes who took several helpings of green plasma. The rest of the Grunts entered, closely followed by the minor Elites and the two Commanders. Ando fired a quartet of blue plasma at another Brute as the Commander fired a trio of carbine rounds at another Brute. The rest of the Brutes were taken care of by the combine efforts of the Grunts and blue armored Elites.

"Arbiter, we have made landing in the ship, all hostiles neutralized for the moment." The Commander said.

Instead of the Arbiter's voice replying, the Supreme Commander greeted them instead, _"The Arbiter has dropped out of contact, he is unable to speak with you at the moment. Okay, if you follow the corridor, it should take you to a large elevator used to transport vehicles, go up on it and it should take you to the Gardens. Make your way through the Gardens and a gravity lift will take you and your team to a large room with two levels. Surrounding the room are large purple domes, the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters are trapped inside them … failure is not an option." _

"Okay, you heard the Commander, let's go!" Ando announced. One Grunts waddled forward, poked his head around the corner, and got it blasted off by a beam fired from a Jackal's beam rifle.

"Grenade out!" Yim Yam shouted as he primed a plasma grenade. The grenade landed just as three shield bearing Jackals turned the corner. Before the Jackals could do anything, the grenade detonated and the Jackal's corpuses were thrown back. Ando ran forward and rolled into the corridor past the dead Grunt. A purple beam sliced through the air and narrowly missed Ando's head. Ando retrieved the dead Grunt's plasma rifle, and now dual wielding plasma rifles, sprayed a liberal amount of blue plasma at the Jackal snipers. The door behind the Jackals opened, revealing the elevator. But only for a short moment as several Brutes exited the elevator and charged.

Without hesitating, three of his Elite warriors charged forward, simultaneously firing their plasma rifles and carbines. Two Brutes kneeled forward and fell, both killed from headshots. One Brute dropped its gun and berserked, completely overwhelming one Elite and sending the fallen warrior's mangled corpse flying across the corridor. The Brute charged again, ready to get its second kill. Wham! One powerful punch sent a carbine wielding Elite flying. The last Elite took sight of the beserking beast… and lashed out his energy sword.

Minor Elites were usually not allowed to use the powerful weapon as they were less experienced and were rather "clumsy" as the Prophets said. But this Elite used the energy sword to good use. Slicing the air into geometric shapes, the Elite easily took out the Brute and four others. Following the sword wielding Elite's lead, the rest of the Elites and the Grunts surged forward, and easily took out the remaining Brutes. Ando walked forward, and approached the sword wielding minor Elite.

"Normally you minor Elites or not to be allowed an energy sword." Ando began harshly, but his expression softened. "But you have shown us a great deal. Expect a promotion when we finish the mission."

The Elite grinned the best an Elite could and replied, "Thank you Commander."

"Now, file into the elevator my warriors!" Ando ordered. The survivors obeyed, and one by one the entered the elevator. Ando entered the elevator last.

The Commander walked up, "I sense an ambush awaiting us." He said.

"Hmmm… Get ready everyone!" Ando said. He punched the activation button for the elevator and felt it slowly ascend. Suddenly, Drones flew forwards from every nook and cranny, The Commander was right.

"Warriors! Find a fixed position and stay there! See if you can ward these beasts off!" Ando yelled.

Yim Yam fired his plasma pistol wildly into the air and took out three Drones that had been unlucky enough to get in the way.

"Yim Yam! Pi Pi needs assistance!" Pi Pi cried out. Pi Pi was desperately trying to kick open a box at the same time as he fired his plasma rifle into the air. Yim Yam ducked as a plasma bolt narrowly missed his head and waddled towards Pi Pi's position.

"Help Pi Pi open box! We can hide in it!" Pi Pi cried.

"Good idea! Start kicking!" Yim Yam replied. Together, the two Grunts quickly kicked the box. After a few seconds, the box toppled over and opened… revealing several fuel rod cannons.

"Yim Yam has better idea." Yim Yam grinned.

Ando Mormoslee fired his beam rifle three times and three Drones fell. He ducked as several plasma bolts flew in his direction and saw the tiresome Grunt, Yim Yam, and his companion waddle forward. Normally, they wouldn't have made much of a difference if they hadn't been wielding fuel rod cannons. Poof! Several burnt corpses scattered all over the place.

Soon, there were only a few scattered Drones, which were easily taken out by the Elites. Just as the last Drone fell, the elevator came to a stop and the door opened revealing three surprised minor Brutes. Ando ignited his energy sword, quickly ran up to the surprised beasts, and in one swipe, cut through each of their hairy chests. The Brutes fell down, mouths opening and closing until an Elite shot each of them with a plasma rifle.

Ando looked at the remainder of the squad, while no Elites had fallen on the elevator, only seven Grunts remained. The Commander waved his plasma rifle side to side, expecting more Brutes to come. But none of the big, hairy beasts came as Ando led his team onward through the Gardens. Suddenly, an Elite's body came flying out of nowhere and the team came across a battle in progress.

Seven red armored veteran Elites who were all wielding an assortment of energy swords, carbines, and plasma rifles were doing their best against several Brutes.

One Elite leapt to the side as a grenade fired from a brute shot came flying out of nowhere and detonated harmlessly on a rock. Another Elite, however, smashed the spine of one Brute but got killed seconds later by another Brute, which was beserking. There was a green explosion, and five black armored Elites led by a single, fuel rod cannon wielding, Zealot Elite.

"Charge!!" The Commander roared as he sprayed blue, superheated plasma at a nearby Brute. The battle was over in a matter of seconds as the Brutes were demolished by the combined assault of the Veteran Elites, Special Operation Elites and the Zealot, and Ando's squad.

"Forerunners be praised! Gold Commander! The Arbiter said you would arrive!" The Zealot cheered. "We have many wounded, mostly our minor Elites and Grunts, they need evac immediately if possible. As for us, we'll follow you on your mission!"

"Yes Zealot, we can't evac them just yet, they have to stay here, and they need protection." Ando replied.

"Don't worry; we have a few pairs of the mighty Hunters and several Commandos coming our way." And just to prove the Zealot's point, the door Ando and his squad came through opened and eight pairs of Hunters and 7 gold armored Elites with ceremonial headpieces emerged.

"We shall come with you, the Hunters, a few of our kind, and all your Grunts should stay here." One of the Commandos said.

Ando nodded in agreement and turned to his troops. "All Grunts please stay here, as well as you ten." Ando said, addressing ten assorted ranked Elites. "Everyone else, follow me! Commander, lead the way." The Commander picked up a beam rifle and walked forward. Soon, they came across a graveyard of Elites, Grunts, Brutes, and Jackals… all surrounding the lift. The squad of Elites walked onto the lift, and the platform slowly started to rise.

After a few seconds, the platform stopped and revealed another door. The team entered the door and it revealed a large room surrounded with giant purple domes.

"Get ready to make battle!" Ando growled…

Chapter 26

0830 units, January 25, 2552 (Covenant Military Calendar)

Slaughter Room/ Covenant Main Capital Ship/ Slipspace

The battle started with an initial rain of plasma grenades followed up by continuous wave of plasma of assorted colors. It took three full units for the Brutes and Jackals to figure out what was happening when their number was cut in half. Some minor Elites recklessly jumped down to the bottom part of the Slaughter Room as a swarm of Drones emerged from one opposite door as a pack of Brutes entered from another.

Ando Mormoslee and the Commander started off by attacking from above with their weapons, though not as accurate as a beam rifle or a carbine, the plasma rifles took out several of their enemy. One Brute ignited a plasma grenade and threw it at Ando's position. Given only three units to get out of the blast radius, Ando leapt out of the way and landed near one of the purple domes. Just as the grenade detonated harmlessly behind the Elite, Ando peered inside one of the domes and was surprised to see a Grunt staring back at him.

"Kill all Brute bad guys! Then big Elite can set us free!" The Grunt squeaked. Ando nodded, brandished his energy sword and led the rest of the Elites to the bottom of the room. The moment the Elite's feet made contact with the floor, three Brutes tried to bum rush him. The result was a single swipe across each of their hairy chests and a double dose of plasma fired from two other Elites.

"We must clear this room of all hostiles!" The Commander yelled as a minor Elite's dead corpse flew over their heads. Ando nodded in agreement and caught sight of a trio of Brutes facing off a single, gold armored Commando Elite. One Brute used the bayonet of its brute shot to swipe at the high ranking Elite as the two other hairy beasts readied their red plasma rifles. The Commando nimbly dodged the razor sharp bayonet, dropped his plasma rifle, and lashed out two energy swords.

Plasma beams pounded on the Elite's shielding as he charged at the Brutes. One Brute sent plasma stuttering to the ceiling as it died while the second Brute had its head sliced off. The last Brute tried a last ditch attempt at killing the Elite by firing its brute shot. The ballistic grenades slammed onto the Elite warrior's shields, and the shields slowly faded. But the Elite had already gone within kissing distance from the Brute and the results were obvious. After his shields recharged, the Commando ran off to kill more Brutes.

"Regroup my Elites! Regroup!" Ando yelled as a Brute charged toward him. Ando pulled his arm back and lashed out his energy sword, cleanly cutting the Brute's head in half. The remaining Elites ran, limped, and fought back to Ando's position… soon the remainder of the team had regrouped. Several of the Elites with dangerously low shields kneeled behind the Elites with full shields as Drones attacked from above. Multiple plasma beams lanced down on the Elite warriors as several blue plasma beams and carbine shots flew in their direction in turn. Soon, not a single Drone remained.

"Okay! Form an attacking line and move forward! Break when I tell you to!" Ando commanded. The Elites obeyed. Soon, all the Elites had lined up, each facing the oncoming Brutes and Jackals.

"Forward my warriors! Do not fear pain or death!" Ando shouted. The Elites bravely charged forward, sending plasma, carbine shots, plasma grenades, and mowing down enemies as they went. Three Jackals raised their shields to protect themselves from the merciless barrage only to be cut down by a single swipe of an energy sword from the Commander. But a new enemy joined the fray.

Two Demons followed by several helmeted humans jumped down via one of the many doors on the second balcony of the room. Bullets and exploding shells filled the air. Two or three of the Elites fell under the mighty barrage.

"Break! Destroy our enemies with all your might!" Ando roared. The warrior spun around and came face to face with the Demon he had captured on the Fabled Prophecy. Ando took no heed of the Arbiter's words, three Elite warriors had fallen, and the human's blood was to be drawn.

But just after Ando swung and missed the Demon with his energy sword, the Demon's shotgun fired and Ando felt his shields fade. Roaring angrily, Ando swung again. This time, the Elite found his mark but the Demon's shields flared but didn't fail. The Demon counter attacked, or tried to. Its shotgun was empty, and Ando cut the weapon in half. Smiling, Ando chuckled to himself about the Demon's helplessness. But then the human vermin drew its sidearm, normally weak and underpowered, but under the circumstances the human would win. Ando pulled away as the Demon fired all twelve shots from its pistol, but two bullets found their mark. Ando screamed painfully as the two rounds ripped into his shoulder… the warrior had had enough. Ando turned and ran from the Demon… he still needed to survive for his Elites sake. Three more bullets rang from the Demon's pistol but none found their mark. With two minor Elites following him, Ando fled from the battle…

0900 units, January 25, 2552 (Covenant Military Calendar)

Outside the Slaughter Room/ Covenant Main Capital Ship/ Slipspace

Ando Mormoslee leaned against a purple wall and slid down. Purple blood swelled out of his wounds, his shoulder ached painfully.

"Don't worry Gold Commander; we'll take care of it." One of the Elites said. The Elite pulled out a field medpac and took out a small purple device from it. A defined beam of red laser shot from it and Ando felt a cool, numbing sensation. Then, using a complicated tweezer-like device, the Elite pulled out the three bullets. They had punched three very deep holes in the Elites shoulder. After filling the wounds up with some bad smelling paste and wrapping it up in a battle wrapping, Ando recharged his shields, thanked the Elite, and returned to the battle.

The fight had ended, not a single Brute or Jackal was in sight. The dead bodies of Elites were laid out in a neat line, their weapons beside them. Ando shook his head; so many lives had been wasted in the war. But now he had to find a way to free the prisoners.

"Look! That panel! Maybe we can find out how to release the prisoners!" The Commander exclaimed. Ando walked towards it, observed it for a few units and slowly shook his head.

"We need an authorization key in order to free our warriors. I will find the jail keeper." Ando finally said.

"Right, we will stay here and hold off any Brutes that try to stop us." The Commander replied. Ando nodded in agreement and made his way to the door when two Elites joined him. One was the sword wielding Minor Elite whilst the other was a dual wielding Spec. Ops Elite.

"We will aid you Commander." The Minor Elite said.

"Thank you, your aid is most welcome." Ando replied. Together, the three exited the large room. They entered a narrow corridor where two Brutes, who were easily silenced, were patrolling. The three Elites turned and came across a battle in progress, a single Zealot followed by two Minor Elites were holding off against a large pack of Brutes. From the sight of two plasma turrets that were strategically positioned in the corridor, Ando knew that they were trying to guard something… or someone.

"Wroooaaaaaarrrr!" The Minor Elite roared. He charged forward and easily silenced the Jackal gunners who were manning the gun emplacements. Next, the Spec. Ops Elite opened fire with his two plasma rifles. A pair of Jackals was brutally battered by the overlapping plasma beams followed up by a slash of an energy sword from the Zealot, they ceased to exist. The other four Minor Elites fell back behind a charging Ando Mormoslee who cut through three Brutes and together, with the combined efforts of the Zealot, the energy sword wielding Minor Elite, and Ando himself, wiped away the remaining Brutes.

But just as the last Brute fell, a quartet of Brute Captains followed by five minor Brutes entered the corridor. There was a brief exchange of overlapping fire in which carbine shots and blue-white plasma was exchanged with red plasma and ballistic grenades. One of the Minor Elites fell under the enemy's mighty barrage while two of the Minor Brutes and a single Brute Captain fell under a wave of superheated plasma.

After the exchange of fire, the three sword wielding Elites charged forward and ripped the remaining Brutes to shreds. Ando nimbly ducked under one of the Brute's fist and slashed at it with his energy sword. ZWAP! The energy sword's blade flickered and faded. Dropping the empty sword, Ando pulled out his plasma pistol and put a plasma bolt into the last Brute's forehead. Soon, the corridor was littered with Brute bodies.

"Gold Commander! Thank our ancestors you have come!" The Zealot exclaimed as he passed Ando one of his spare energy swords.

Ando excepted the powerful weapon and replied, "Yes Zealot, but we do not have the time for this right now. Lead your troops back to the Slaughter Room; we are trying to find the jail keeper."

"But Commander! I know where the jail keeper is! Follow me!" The Zealot said. "My Elites, stay here and make sure no Brute can follow us!"

"Yes sir!" The remaining three Minor Elites replied. Then Ando, the Spec. Ops Elite, and the Minor Elite continued their path towards the jail keeper now joined by the Zealot.

"What is your name Zealot?" The Minor Elite asked.

"Ordo Ignorslee, what's yours?" The Zealot replied.

"Igna Orgnosla at your service, nice to meet you." The Minor Elite said.

"Hmmm, and how about you Spec. Op Elite?"

"Bordo Lignaraa, why…" The Spec. Ops Elite started when Ando cut him off.

"While these introductions are nice and all, we must continue our task at hand. Are we there yet?" Ando said.

"Wait, there, the sniveling Brute is hiding in that armory with two Brute Honor Guards." The Zealot replied. Ando acknowledged the statement and crouched near the armory's door. The other Elites took up their positions. Ando hit the control panel for the door, and it silently slid open. Two plasma grenades exploded, and Ando's shields flickered down to half. But they didn't prevent the other Elites from entering the room. There was a brief struggle in which Bordo Lignaraa assassinated one Honor Guard while Igna Orgnosla and Ordo Ignorslee tackled the other Honor Guard, and easily killed the hairy beast. Ando seized the moment to charge forward and put the jail keeper in a headlock.

"Mercy! Please spare me!" The Brute pleaded. But in one fluid movement, its throat was slit and its corpse was thrown aside. There were going to be no prisoners in this war.

Ando picked up the prison key from the floor and announced, "Okay, we have the key, now let us free our brothers!"

Ando Mormoslee, Bordo Lignaraa, Igna Orgnosla, and Ordo Ignorslee quickly ran through the corridors and arrived at the Minor Elite's position. But there were no more Elites. The corridor was filled with several dead Brutes and Jackals. Among the corpses were the four smoldering bodies of the Minor Elites.

"By the Prophets…" Ordo murmured. Igna and Bordo quickly ran to check each of the four bodies, but none of them were alive.

"We must continue on, their lives will be avenged." Ando Mormoslee quietly spoke. After laying the bodies of the four Elites in a row and crossing their arms, the four Elites continued on to the Slaughter Room. When they arrived, they saw that several more Elites had joined the original team of Elites.

"Welcome back Ando, we've been quite busy without your presence." The Commander grinned as he nudged the smoldering corpse of a Brute with his right foot.

Ando grinned the best an Elite could and replied, "Business is good today my brother, now… let us free the prisoners and get off this accursed ship…"

Chapter 27

1100 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

En route to Alpha Base Beach/ Australia/ Earth

Three Pelicans flew across the blue ocean, the rain had parted and soft sunlight glittered upon the water. It seemed rather quiet, on a day like this; one would forget that Earth was under attack and losing a long lost battle. That's why Earth needed one thing: Alpha Base. Being the Main Supply Base of the UNSC on this side of the planet, it housed more than 1,000,000,000,000 kilos of the UNSC's weaponry, artillery, and medical supplies. So Captain Corbec, the captain of the Generation, and Admiral Clark had cooked up a plan which was going to rid Alpha Base of all its assailants.

Andrew looked out the aft section of the Pelican and went over the plan mentally in his head. First, a team of UNSC soldiers would land in Alpha Base's Beach and clear it of any Covenant troopers. Then, more UNSC soldiers and techs would land on the beach and fortify it so it could easily ward off any Covenant that tried to send more troops to attack Alpha Base. Meanwhile, a fleet of Warthogs and Scorpion tanks which would be filled to the brim with UNSC soldiers would make their way to Alpha Base, clear it of any hostiles, rescue any surviving humans, and await further orders.

Andrew cocked his Sub Machine Gun and looked around the aft section. There were 11 other humans, all Marines who were armed with SMGs and Assault Rifles. Nothing too fancy, but would get the job done. Andrew wished there were other Spartans with him, but the majority of them had been sent to Alpha Base… and they all could be dead at the very moment. Katy and Monica had stayed onboard The Sparta for some "secret" reason, so Andrew would have to rely on the Marines at the moment.

"_Okay people! We've reached the beach and are receiving enemy fire! Get ready for a fast drop off!"_ The pilot yelled over the COM. The three Pelicans landed nose forward and guns blazing on the beach. Several Brutes, Jackals, and Drones fell under the tidal wave of bullets. Other Covenant troopers hid behind rocks, trenches, and any other cover they could find. Andrew aimed his SMG and leapt out of the aft section followed by the Marines. Andrew quickly looked to his left and right, noted that all the other Marines had landed, and was just about to engage the enemy when three lances of plasma shot out and cut down two Marines.

"Snipers!" A Marine yelled, "Take cover people!" Andrew turned and ducked, just in time. A purple beam of plasma cut through the air where his head had been moments before.

"Drop off successful, returning to-…" The pilot started, but several defined beams of plasma shot out, melted away the shockproof glass of the cockpit, and killed the pilot. The Pelican nosed over and sent ripples of sand flying through the air. The other two Pelicans started to back out when several ballistic grenades slammed into the cockpit of one Pelican, and a Wraith tank finished the job. The remains of the Pelican slammed into the sand. The last Pelican took several plasma shots in but nevertheless managed to retreat… safely out of harm's way. The 34 remaining Humans, however, spread out in clusters around the beach using whatever cover they could find.

"There are some Brute hiding in that small rockslide, they'll be able to shoot at us from a safe distance, you'd better take them out." Bastila warned. Andrew kneeled down next to one of the pair of Marines that were killed in the start of the mission, took the time to close his eyelids, grabbed the fallen soldier's SMG, ammo, and grenades, and replied, "Sure thing." Now dual wielding SMGs, Andrew led five Marines forwards to what seemed too had been a small rock slide and were immediately attacked by several Brutes. One Brute fired its Brute Shot and the grenade detonated on the ground near one Marine. He screamed in pain as shrapnel peppered areas of his face and hands. The Marine dropped to the sand and lay there, groaning in pain and clutching his face. Blood flowed freely from his wounds.

"Suppressing fire!" Andrew shouted as he took up his position in front of the wounded Marine. The other four Marines kneeled around him as well, together they fired a steady stream of 5mm and 9.5mm bullets at the Brutes, who, after taking in several shots, dove for cover.

"Hold your positions Marines!" Andrew shouted over the shutters of automatic fire. The Spartan ran up the beach and jumped into the small rockslide. He walked forwards a bit, and came across a rather surprised Brute. The Spartan lashed out his fist and punched the Brute's face. The beast's neck snapped and its lifeless body fell to the ground.

But another Brute came, and unlike its deceased companion, it seemed angry. Andrew kneeled down, dropped his second SMG, and fired an entire clip into the hairy beast. But it didn't drop; the Brute charged forward and elbowed Andrew directly into his visor. The powerful shields of his MJOLNIR armor saved him, but nevertheless Andrew staggered backwards, fumbled with his SMG and dropped it, and barely regained his footing when once again, the Brute put its entire mass on Andrew and sent the Spartan flying into a large boulder. ZWAP! Andrew's shields failed as the Brute charged again. Andrew looked for a way to take out the Brute… and found out how. Combined with his immense strength that was multiplied by the MJOLNIR armor, the Spartan leapt up in the air and landed firmly on top of the boulder. The Brute stopped short of the boulder and looked up, knowing that its enemy would have to come down sooner or later, and then… it'll strike. Andrew looked at his two SMGs that lay abandoned in the sand, and primed a fragmentation grenade. While the Brute could have easily jumped out of the way of the grenade's blast radius, Andrew lobbed the grenade not at the Brute, but at one of the SMGs. His plan worked perfectly. The grenade detonated and sent the SMG flying into the air… and landed straight into Andrew's arms. The Spartan ejected the empty clip, slammed a fresh clip in its place, and unleashed a hellish hellfire upon the Brute. Soon, Andrew jumped down and the Brute was dead. Andrew continued up the beaten path and found that the rest of the Brutes had been killed, most likely by one of the Marine's grenades. The Spartan was just about to congratulate the Marines when he came across their dead bodies; they too had been killed by a grenade.

Andrew, after taking the time to close the Marine's eyelids, ran back to the beach… only to find that the rest of the Beach Clearance Team had all been killed.

Kyle lashed out from his hiding spot and put a trio of three round bursts from his BR55 rifle into the Brute's, which had been sneaking up on Kyle's team, head. The moment the Brute's dead hulk slammed into the ground, a pair of shield totting Jackals burst from their cover and fired several plasma bolts at the humans.

"Gaaaaghhhhh!" A Marine screamed as a plasma bolt connected to his face. The human fell to the ground clutching his face for a short time before finally laying still on the ground. But two other Marines, who were unharmed, chose the moment to jump out from their cover at hand and unloaded two full clips from their SMGs into the Jackals. Both Jackals fell to the ground and lay still.

The defenses of Alpha Base had turned to a deadly game of hide and go seek among the debris of the remains of destroyed vehicles, broken walls, and many other things that had been destroyed during the battle. Now, Marine defenders and Covenant attackers alike scurried among the debris looking and running from one another, isolated automatic fire and whines of plasma fire was heard throughout the area.

Kyle kneeled down beside the dead Marine and grabbed his ammo, leaving such valuable ordinance around was inadvisable. The humans continued on… ever since they retreated from the advancing Covenant they had performed a series of hit and run exercises, and, of course, looking for other humans. This managed to keep things alive, but no word of the rest of the Alpha Base defenders had been heard.

"This is Recon Team number two, can any UNSC personnel respond?" A voice yelled over the COM. Kyle cautiously peered over a large piece of debris and spotted one Scorpion Tank flanked by two Warthog LAVs enter the battlefield.

"Blue two! Blue two! We're under attack! Agghhh!" Another voice screamed over the COM as a mortar which was fired from a Covenant Wraith tank and utterly destroyed one Warthog. At the very moment the remains of the Warthog slammed to the ground, an entire team of Brutes ran out from their hiding spots and fired their weapons.

"What are these guys playin' at?" The Marine near Kyle whispered, but then another voice rang in over the COM, Spartan-266: Cameron.

"Okay everyone! Get ready to skewer these bastards!" Cameron said. Three Warthog Personnel-Carriers drove in dividing the Brutes from the Marine controlled Scorpion Tank and a total of eighteen Spartans filed out. Then, two Pelicans flew overhead and a total of twenty four Spartans dropped down from above and landed on the other side of the human vehicles. In a total of 42, the Spartans fired their BR55 rifles at the crowd of Brutes and skewered the beasts inside out.

More Spartans, who were armed with rocket launchers, rushed in from Alpha Base's debris and sent an entire volley of rockets at the Covenant Spectres, Wraiths, Shadows, and parked Ghosts. Plasma fire stuttered through the air as the human barrage battered them back. Finally, the Brutes and Jackals regrouped and, closely followed by their Drone comrades, charged forward, roaring savagely for the human's blood.

"Okay Marines! Let's help them out!" Kyle said thinking, _like they'd need our help anyways. _The Spartan led his Marines to Cameron's position.

"Kyle? Good to see you! We'll show you our HQ after we deal with these guys." Cameron grinned. "Spartans! Form up in front of the vehicles! Rocket jockeys, take up your positions, spread out and aim for groups of these alien bastards. Mr. Tank driver, blast them all to hell. Move it up everyone!" The humans quickly took up their positions with Battle Riflers kneeling down in front of the vehicles while Spartans armed with rocket launchers scattered about. Soon, multicolored plasma and ballistic grenades were exchanged with armor piercing bullets, rockets, and powerful tank shells.

Kyle shouldered his BR55 rifle and fired a smattering of rounds which were caught by an unlucky Brute while Jackals raised their personal shields in vain of blocking the rockets and tank shells sent by their human enemies only to be blasted apart by overlapping fields of fire.

Meanwhile, Drones crisscrossed in every direction, occasionally getting caught up by armor piercing bullets but nonetheless stood strong… Cameron changed that for them.

"Traitor-617, get your butt down here and burn those buggers." Cameron ordered.

"Roger that ground team, on my way." The pilot of Traitor-617 replied. A Pelican soared in overhead and flew straight for the swarm of Drones. Those who hadn't been splattered across the windshield of the Pelican were burnt to crisps by the dropship's engines.

"Mission accomplished ground team, better make your way back to HQ." The pilot said lazily.

"Roger that, party favors for everyone when we get back Traitor-617, on me." Cameron replied.

"Good to hear it, 617 out."

"Okay people! Haul ass back to base!" Cameron said.

Chapter 28

1200 units, January 25, 2552 (Covenant Military Calendar)

The Highest Prophecy/ Elite Fleet HQ/ In orbit over Installation 05

Ando Mormoslee climbed out of one of the many Phantoms that had landed in_ The Highest Prophecy's hangar_ and immediately walked towards the hangar's entrance. As the Elite walked through _The Highest Prophecy's _main hall, Ando quickly noticed how badly they needed more warriors. Minor Elites led small squads of Patrol Grunts while Hunters, who usually traveled in pairs, stood solitary at doorways, thinly spread out. But when hundreds of Hunters, Elites, and Grunts alike poured in through many of the hangar entrances, it seemed so that they wouldn't be so short handed any longer.

After rescuing the prisoners onboard the Brute controlled Main Capital Ship, Ando had led a small squad of his Elite commandos around to rescue any stragglers while the Commander, Ordo Ignorslee, Bordo Lignaraa, and Igna Orgnosla, who was now unofficially promoted to a full honorary veteran, took over the many hangars the ship held and loaded the Phantoms and Seraphs inside with personnel.

"Good work Zealot Commander." A tired voice said behind Ando. Ando quickly spun around on his axis and was rewarded with the sight of the Arbiter who was surrounded by his High Council Guards.

"Thank you holy Arbiter, I did what I must." Ando replied.

"Then you'll be surprised when I tell you this, the Main Capital Ship abruptly exploded when your 'fleet' of Phantoms and Seraphs did a merge slipspace jump. You were lucky to get out at all… but… do you know what had done this?"

"The humans' sir, I saw them with my very own eyes. They killed a few of my warriors and ran for it. I was wounded by a particular Demon I had captured a while ago."

"Just as I had feared, I guess we cannot expect to ally with the humans so early on, it is our fault that so many of their kind are dead." Ando was bursting to yell out that the humans were not to be trusted, that they were a despicable race that must be annihilated, but he could not find himself to do it.

"Yes Arbiter, I agree." He said.

"Good, now then, I understand that an attack had been launched on the planet that humans call 'Earth' and attacked a particular area which they also call 'Australia'. Is this true?" The Arbiter asked.

"Yes, we had been successful until the Brutes came and took out many of our forces. We hadn't known that they were going to betray us. No doubt many of our troops are scattered around that area."

"Yes, well Zealot Commander, would you like to lead a part rescue part recon mission?"

"If it is the Arbiter's wish your Excellency." Ando replied.

At the reply, the Arbiter laughed and replied, "It is not my choice, and we are not the Prophets. Only if you want to you will lead this mission."

"Then I will accept your Excellency, tell me what to do."

"Well first-…" The Arbiter started when a loud explosion sounded a little ways off.

"Status report!" The Arbiter yelled.

"It appears that large boarding parties have slipped through the Fleet's sensors and are now coming to our positions my lord!" A nearby Elite screamed.

"Then take out as many as you can, Zealot Commander, alert all of our men to get ready to repel boarders! I will protect the bridge!" The Arbiter commanded, with that he lashed out his energy sword and ran off.

"Boarding parties are closing in! Warriors! Prepare for combat!" Ando yelled through his COM mike. Immediately the newly rescued Elites, Grunts, and Hunters ran to the armories, the hangars, and any defendable position they could find. DONG! The ship started to shake.

"They've landed sir! Get ready!" An Elite whispered. For a second, the purple lights went dim, everyone fell silent.

"Yim Yam! Get over here!" Ando whispered harshly at the Grunt, who was cowering behind a waste disposal container.

"Yes your Excellency?" The Grunt squeaked.

"You are my second in command of the Grunt warriors, are you not?"

"Yes sir!" Yim Yam whispered in reply.

"Then I have a task for you. Get some of your men and head over to the main armory. Tell the guards that you have permission from me and get as many turrets, plasma weapons, and grenades here a soon as possible… GO!" When Yim Yam had scurried off with several Grunts at his heels, Ando looked at the hangar entrances only to be awarded with the sight of the doors and great purple walls exploding.

"They're here! Make combat my warriors!" Ando roared.

"WORT WORT WORT!" The rest of the Elites chanted. At that very moment, Brutes, Jackals, and Drones poured out of the destroyed walls and doors and started to open fire. The Hunters, who had been stationed up front, raised their shields in protection for the rest of the Elite and Grunt army while they let loose several powerful beams of bright green plasma at the enemy Covenant.

While fuel rod beams shot through the swarms of Drones, the packs of Brutes, and the squads of Jackals, the Grunts, who were very good at climbing, crawled and climbed to the highest areas of the main hall and started to lay down a canopy of covering fire. After a few seconds of the merciless barrage, a hole opened up in the enormous force of the enemy Covenant which the Elites quickly exploited.

"Zealot Commander! Catch!" A voice yelled nearby. Ordo Ignorslee quickly tossed a pair of plasma pistols at Ando who quickly plucked them out of the air. Nodding in thanks to the gold armored Elite, Ando, who was now dual wielding plasma pistols, fired a full auto barrage of bright green plasma at the crowds of Jackals and Drones, who, unlike the Brutes, seemed to be greatly effective by the Covenant sidearm.

After a few moments of triumph, the plasma pistols overloaded and quickly depleted their energy. Now Ando was left with no weapon at all.

_Yim Yam you incapable Grunt, where are you? _Ando thought grimly. The Elite was about to run back in search of any other weapon when more Brutes entered the battle.

"Die! Die! Die!" Yim Yam yelled as he fired his needler at the advancing Jackals and Brutes. The fight seemed laughable since a squad of Grunts didn't usually last long against the standard Brute and Jackal squad, but luck seemed to turn in favor for the Grunts. The shots fired by the Jackals cleanly missed the Grunts while the Grunts return fire did not. Brutes abandoned their weapons and charged forward only to be put down by a barrage of needles. Soon, only the Grunts were left standing in the corridor.

"You want more? Okay!" A Grunt squeaked at the dead Brutes, he then started to fire randomly into the mass of corpses.

"Save your ammo, Grunts might need later." Yim Yam warned. What the Grunt said soon proved to be right when they were ambushed by several Jackals. Yim Yam overcharged his plasma pistol, knocked out a Jackal's shield, and finished it off with a barrage of needles. When Brutes entered the scene, the Grunts were just about ready to give up when two of their comrades fell when a total of five Elites, an honorary veteran in red-orange armor who was recognized as Igna Orgnosla who led four regular veteran Elites, ran in and easily took out the Brutes with a combined assault of energy swords and plasma rifles.

"Hmmm… you're the Grunt who helps Ando right? Lead the way, we'll escort you." Igna said as he reloaded his Covenant carbine. With the help of the Elites, Yim Yam managed to get through the corridors and finally arrive at the Main Armory where several Elites, Grunts, and Hunters were stationed.

"Authorized personnel only Grunt." The Elite warbled, he obviously looked bored while the Grunts looked perfectly happy.

"Oh great Zealot Commander gave me strict orders to bring extra supplies to the battle." Yim Yam squeaked in reply.

"Oh very well then, Boras, open the door." The Elite sighed. Yim yam and his Grunts quickly scurried inside the armory, gathered what they could, and came out heavily burdened with plasma weaponry. The Grunts who were stationed at the armory shrugged their little shoulders and grabbed some supplies as well. Now, after the armory Grunts joined them, the Grunts and Elites made their way back to the battle. Little did they know that the battle was just about done.

Ando kneeled down and grabbed the needler a Grunt had dropped when he was shot in the head as plasma flared at the edge of his shields. After taking the precious time of recharging his shields, Ando withdrew from his cover and fired a full barrage of 30 pink, crystal like needles at the enemy soldiers. Muffled pink explosions were seen and heard in the main hall, Brute's and Jackal's dead bodies flew into the air and occasionally whacked a flying Drone before falling back to the ground.

The Brute forces had just barely managed to get through the line of Hunters before making battle with the Elites, and before that Grunts leapt from their spots and sprayed the closest enemy with plasma.

Nonetheless, the Brutes seemed to be winning. For every Brute, Jackal, or Drone taken out two Elites, Grunts, or one Hunter would fall in retaliation. Ando fired his last needle from his needler and knew that they were going to lose. Reinforcements where 30 units away and they were dangerously low on weaponry. If Yim Yam didn't make it back soon, they would inevitably lose and die.

"Zealot Commander, I am sending you a team of my most experienced warriors, do not squander their talents." The Arbiter said over the COM. Ando was puzzled for a second until a total of five Ghosts and two Spectres, all piloted by red-orange armored Elites, drove in from the vehicle hangar and started to spray plasma at the Brutes with liquefying speed. After a few seconds, the Elites leapt out of their vehicles, which had been greatly damaged after a few seconds of return fire, and fired their Covenant carbines at the enemy Brutes, Jackals, and Drones.

The Arbiter said they were experienced, but Ando had never seen anything like them. They moved in such speed, agility, and nimble strength to match Ando's original squad, watching them fight was magnificent. After a few second of fighting, the Elites had managed to get _behind _enemy lines and were wiping them out. The Brutes and Jackals turned to face the Elites and presented their backs to the rest of the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters. They were now winning thanks to the arrival of the Elites.

At that very moment, plasma rained down on the confused Brutes, Jackals, and Drones and Ando saw that Yim Yam had silently placed the plasma turrets around the main hall's wall balconies. Now, Yim Yam and his Grunts were tossing plasma weapons into the crowd of Elites and Grunts who had gathered to collect some more firearms.

"Catch Commander!" Yim Yam squeaked. Throwing as hard as he could, Yim Yam threw a pair of plasma rifles at Ando, who immediately caught them and fired plasma at the Brutes.

Brutes fell under plasma while Jackals were cut in half by energy swords, powerful beams of bright green plasma cut through swarms of Drones until all was silent, and the Elite, Grunt, and Hunter defenders stood victorious…

Chapter 29

1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Alpha Base Beach/ Australia/ Earth

"Reinforcements are thirty minutes away… we're alone on this one." Bastila said after a while. Andrew looked around the beach as he crouched behind a large boulder, dead Marines and their weapons and grenades lay strewn all over the sand. Occasionally, a dead Brute or Jackal's body would show up. Otherwise, nothing moved.

"I don't think we're totally alone, someone must've survived." Andrew said firmly, and just as to prove what the Spartan said, a fragmentation grenade exploded nearby a pack of Brutes and showered the area with sand and shrapnel.

"Told ya' so." Andrew said. The Spartan quickly stood up and emerged from his cover as he fired several bullets from his MA5B at the Brutes. At the same time, a total of three Marines ran out from their cover and fired their SMGs at the aliens. Together, the humans quickly took out the Brutes and had time to catch their breaths.

"Good to see you sir, we thought we'd be alone on this one." The lead Marine said.

"Same here sergeant, but enough of that, we need a plan." Andrew replied.

"I know that, but outgunning a whole platoon of Brutes and Jackals who have vehicle support is a whole lot harder than outsmarting them." Andrew nodded grimly, no matter what, with only a few assault weapons, the humans couldn't take out all the Covenant. The Wraiths would either gun them down or the Brutes and Jackals would overpower them. Andrew was still deep in thought when the idea hit him.

"I need a distraction, when you see that one of the Wraiths had gone hectic, take cover. I'm gonna' make a hell of a lot of fireworks." Andrew said.

"Aye sir, stay sharp." The Marine replied, "Okay you two, this Spartan needs a distraction and we're gonna' give him one." At once, the three Marines ran out and started to throw grenades into the rocks where the Covenant was stationed. Plasma darted in the three Marines direction but none found a mark.

"_Good luck sir!"_ The Marine grunted over the COM.

"You better get moving, but I have to say that what you're going to do is quite risky." Bastila cautioned.

"It's better than sitting here and waiting for reinforcements." Andrew replied. The Spartan ran from rock to rock, making sure that nothing was behind him, he finally made it to an old rockslide the Brutes and Jackals were stationed. Andrew quickly slung his assault rifle and drew his SMG, which was better to use a close rang if he needed to use it, which he hoped he didn't. Kneeling down beside a boulder, Andrew saw the shadow of a Brute along the sand and knew he only had one shot at it, or risk being discovered.

The shadow grew bigger, soon the Spartan could see the beast's hairy foot.

"NOW!" Bastila yelled from inside the Spartan's helmet. Andrew lashed out and slammed the butt of his SMG into the Brute's spine. There was a loud crack of the Brute's spine cracking in half and the beast's corpse fell to the ground.

"Nice job, now hurry and get to any Wraith you can find." Bastila said. Andrew nodded in agreement and ran past the dead Brute and into the old rockslide. It was quite dark; the sun didn't make it through the rocks and boulders. Signs of Jackal and Brute footprints lay scattered all over the sand.

"Watch out for any Covenant in here, you don't want to be discovered." Bastila warned. Just as to prove the AI's words, a Jackal loomed into view. It had its shield at ready and its plasma was glowing with an eerie green glow. Obviously the bastard thought it was going to knock out the Spartan's shields. But the Covenant Jackal was wrong.

Andrew jumped down from a rather large boulder he was crouching on and twisted the alien's neck in one swift solid movement. Andrew laid the Jackal's corpse down on the sand and ran forward though two boulders. The Spartan came out back into the sunlight came face to face with a Covenant Wraith tank. Andrew's first instinct was to shoot at the vehicle with his SMG, but immediately knew that the sub machine gun would prove futile to the heavy bulk of the Wraith tank. But the purple, beetle-like vehicle didn't move. The Brute who had been piloting the vehicle had probably gone off to try to shoot at the three Marines.

"Good, let me interface with the Wraith's controls… excellent. I'm in; you go get into another Wraith and let's see who can get more kills." Bastila chirped happily.

"You're on." Andrew grinned. The Spartan ran to the next Wraith parked in line and climbed into its cockpit. The Spartan took the time necessary to get used to the foreign controls of the alien tank and, with some help from Bastila, started it up and immediately turned to the other three Wraiths parked in line.

"Take this!" Andrew grunted, he pressed the Wraith's 'fire' button and launched six comet-like plasma mortars at the parked Wraiths. All three Covenant tanks blew up in quick succession and the two human and AI controlled Wraiths pushed past the wreckage.

Soon, the humans had driven to the Brutes and Jackal's locations but didn't take any plasma fire. Apparently, the Covenant though the human and AI controlled Wraiths were allies. Andrew hit the 'boost' button and felt several dull thumps land onto the Wraiths nose before the smashed bodies to Brutes and Jackals flew into the air before landing dully onto the sand. Bastila fired a continuous string of plasma mortars at the Brutes and Jackals, who didn't know where the plasma fire was coming from. After a few moments of confused plasma fire, the remaining Brutes and Jackals regroup and charge in _en masse_ only to be gunned down by hundreds of bullets.

Several Pelicans flew into view from the sky while hundreds of human ground vehicles drove into view. HEV pods landed into the sand as much, much larger Vehicle Entry Vehicle pods landed several kilometers away sending ripples of sand flying in every direction. Ground troops ran towards the old rockslide and came out holding several surviving Brutes and Jackals hostage.

The Alpha Base attackers didn't know it, but the humans had made landfall…

1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Alpha Base/ Australia/ Earth

_God damn this_, thought Sgt. Major Tray Wooten as he hit the Warthog's gas pedal and drove further in the 'Warthog tunnel'. The moment the large force of Covenant hit Alpha Base, Wooten knew that they were screwed. The Marine and his squad had survived the first wave of Covenant attackers only to witness the hundreds of Elites, Grunts, and bad ass Hunters falling back as even _more _Covenant dropships fly into battle and drop off thousands of Brutes. Having already encountered the hairy beasts, and egged on for retreat by the arrival of a new enemy that was deemed the Covenant Drinol, Wooten had loaded a total of five 'Hogs' with his squad and a few ODSTs and immediately took off through the Warthog tunnels. For some time now, the humans had been driving through the Warthog tunnels shooting any Covenant they passed by before taking off and picking up any human they saw that was in trouble.

All was going well until they almost drove into two Covenant Wraith tanks that were blocking the tunnel. The Warthog driven by his second in command, Private O' Riley, crashed head on into one of the Wraiths, which exploded in sapphire blue flames, while the other Wraith, which the pilot had immediately noticed the other four Warthogs, sent one plasma mortar at the caravan. The mortar didn't find its mark, but sent two of the four remaining Warthogs rolling on their sides and sending their passengers to the ground.

Wooten didn't have time to hear the unlucky bastards who fell off their vehicles, he grabbed the nearest Marine on the ground and was about to drive off when the same Wraith sent a volley of small, blue plasma rounds as its secondary fire at Wooten's Warthog. The Warthog didn't take any serious damage but had its gunner killed and one of the side passengers wounded.

The Marine Wooten had rescued climbed to the gunner seat and manned the turret only to be on time to see one Banshee scream into the tunnel and send a boiling blob of a Banshee bomb and directly impact Wooten's neighboring Warthog. The hard pressed Sergeant pushed on the brakes of his vehicle and waited for the only survivor of the Warthog that got bombed to get on the Warthog before taking off once again.

They drove blindly for a few minutes, taking enemy fire and sending return fire in retaliation. But soon their luck was thought to have run dry. They drove right into a Covenant Drinol and were almost crushed flat by its fist when a whole squadron of Shortsword fliers flew in and bombed the beast with rockets. The beast fell flat on its back and Wooten thought they were safe when the whine of the Drinol's fuel rod cannon's failsafe sounded.

Wooten hit the Warthog in full reverse and just barely got out of the blast radius… they were safe. The Shortswords flew away and three Ghosts drove toward Wooten's damaged Warthog. The gunner was about to open fire when a COM transmission came in: "This is Spartan 271 with Spartans 265 and 277, do you copy?"

Wooten, who was now stupefied from their close encounter with the Covenant Drinol, replied, "Yes sir we copy."

"Are there any other with you?" The Spartan asked.

"No sir, we're all that's left."

Wooten heard the Spartan mutter softly 'damn' and then, "Alright Marine, follow us to HQ, we could use some more help."

"Yes sir." Wooten replied.

"Oh, make sure we aren't being followed, the Covenant don't know about our HQ inside an HQ…yet." Wooten nodded as gave the Warthog some gas and followed the three Ghosts through another Warthog tunnel and out to the Center Wing of Alpha Base. The Center Wing was heavily guarded by Scorpion Tanks, Warthogs, anti air defense platforms, and the lone MAC gun installed on the fortified building which was now designated as HQ. Wooten drove past several hastily dug trenches, turret pits, Lotus anti-tank mine traps, and bunkers and finally entered what looked like a vehicle garage where several more Human and scrounged Covenant vehicles were parked.

"Welcome to HQ." The Spartan said as he got off his Covenant vehicle. "You've done a very good thing for us."

"With all due respect sir, what did we do?" Wooten replied.

The Spartan cocked his head quizzically, "Why, you have one of our recon Warthogs, aren't you in the recon team?"

"No sir, we came across these hogs when we tried to escape from the Covenant." Wooten said.

The Spartan laughed, "Oh well, you did a better job than the recon team, we installed a radar on those Warthogs and Intel reports that a large 'fleet' of Covenant dropships are inbound on our vector, get ready soldier…"


	11. Restarted Story new proluage

Halo: Generation 2- The 2nd Generation of Spartans By: Sol 249

Prologue

1200 hours, January 1, 2552 (Military Calendar)

New York City/ America/ Earth/ Sol System

"Set off those charges NOW!!!" Spartan-249, Andrew yelled over the sound of persistent plasma fire. As the charges exploded into a fiery red cloud, the Spartan turned his MA5B rifle at the squad of Covenant Brutes charging towards him and fired an entire sixty round clip into the blue armored mass. One came close enough to cut down the Spartan with an energy sword sharp bayonet when a hail of knifes flew through the air and stabbed the beast down.

Spartan-277, Cody, stood over the dead alien with the two fingered 'smile' sign over his helmet. Then the Spartan took out his BR55 and rushed to overtake a group of vulture-like Jackals who were harassing a pair of Marines. Repeating flashes of light brightened the darkening area as twelve shields were smashed and the holders were killed. Being one of the two Special Operations leaders, this handiwork was common with him.

Meanwhile, Spartan-250, Monica, was taking on four red armored Brutes all by herself. The Spartan was one of the most adept at fighting hand to hand combat, and seeing her fight was proof of it. She ducked under one Brute's arm and punched the barrel of her M6C pistol through its chest, then she fired at the other alien's through the Brute's chest spraying blood and gore all over the vicinity. Another row of Brutes came in, and all died in an order as Monica fired her modified S2 AM Sniper rifle. The Spartan was also adept at being a scout.

Spartan-266, Special Operations leader no#2, Cameron, rushed by on top of a flying Banshee and was busy trying not to fall off the vehicle. Plasma sprayed across the Banshee's hood as Covenant soldiers below tried to shoot the Spartan off. Molten alien alloy splashed at Cameron, globs of overheated metals splashing off his visor. Cameron reared back and flipped under the vehicle, grabbed both of the 'wings', and using strength amplified by the MJOLNIR armor he twisted the wings into an unrecognizable mass. The Banshee exploded, and Cameron appeared meters away and was already in combat against a single, gold armored Brute.

Andrew's attention was taken by the body of a Spartan flying through the air. Spartan-254, Evan, slowly got up and charged at a trio of Grunts once again. The first Grunt flipped over the Spartan's back and kicked him in the back of the head. Evan lunged forwards uncontrollably as another Grunt leaned back and put a full powered punch into Evan's face. The Spartan lurched back again… just as the last Grunt body slammed Evan to the ground. Evan lay immobile on the ground.

"Pffft, I don't know why he can be called a Spartan." A voice said behind Andrew. 249 turned around and faced Spartan-283, Kyle. He was in charge of assault, and was Andrew's second in command. The Spartan charged towards the three Grunts and fired point blank at them with his shotgun. A Brute howled suddenly and appeared out of nowhere. It landed on top of Kyle and was about to shoot the Spartan in the face with its Covenant carbine when Kyle reached up and pulled the beast's head off with a heart sickening _POP!_

Suddenly, a flurry of sniper bullets stabbed at a group of overconfident Drones that thought that they could kill Kyle and an unconscious Evan. Blood plashed the plasma burned pavement as the swarm was reduced to nothing. Somewhere in a building, sniper CO Spartan-223, Smith, was reducing groups of Covenant to blood splats. The screams of a squadron of Banshees came to life as the vehicles appeared over destroyed buildings. Apparently, the air force was dispatched to take out Smith.

"249 to 217, could you take out a squadron of Covey bogies at Smith's position… over." Andrew said over the COM.

"Sure thing lead, I'm on my way." The voice of Philip, heavy troop CO replied. On the rooftops, the form of a gray armored Spartan appeared. Philip took out a trip mine and tossed it onto one of the twelve Banshees flying below him. Three seconds passed… and the Banshee blew up taking two others with it. Three of the remaining ten scout craft turned to Philip's position and let loose a rain of plasma at him. Philip ducked, rolled, and ran from the fray. Then the Spartan turned, jumped onto one of the Banshees, and shoved six fragmentation grenades into its cockpit.

By the time the _WHAM!_ Of the exploding Banshees was heard, Philip was already firing a full salvo of rockets at the other seven Banshees. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… the Covenant vehicles exploded in quick unison before they reached Smith.

"Oh, God!!!! Help us someone!" The voice of a Marine screamed. Andrew spun on his heels to be awarded with the sight of eleven red armored Brutes led by a single, gold armored Brute attacking a trio of Marines. Andrew quickly shoved his M6 pistol into its holster and unslung his MA5C rifle. Five of the Brutes took sight of the charging Spartan and opened up fire with their Spike rifles as another tossed a spike grenade along the Spartan's trajectory. Andrew pivoted around the molten projectiles the spike rifles spat out and caught the spike grenade with his fragmentation grenade. In half a second, both grenades were tossed back and all six Brutes were blown to bits. The last five red armored Brutes roared and activated their energy swords, circling around Andrew and growling for blood. _BAM!_ A sniper bullet passed through one Brute's head and Andrew was out of the circle.

Thanking Smith mentally in his head, Andrew scooped up the Brute's fallen energy sword and backward sliced the closest Brute. The teal armored Spartan grabbed the other energy sword and spun around to face the remaining three Brutes. The Brutes on either side of Andrew lunged forward and were blocked with Andrew's dual wielded energy swords. The last Brute went for the kill… until it had a hole kicked into its chest. Andrew dropped to the ground and both energy swords barely scratched his visor. The Spartan rolled forwards and grabbed a fallen spike grenade… it was tossed back and both Brutes were shredded.

Standing back up, Andrew sighted the gold armored, gravity hammer wielding Brute standing over the three dead bodies of the Marines. A shot of ice cut through Andrew's veins, and the Lieutenant lunged at the Brute. The hammer slammed down and was blocked by two energy swords. Both enemies pushed their lethal weapons against each other for a few seconds until the brute slammed its foot down into Andrew's knee. The Spartan grunted in pain and fell to one foot loosing his position as the hammer swung down… and two gauntleted hands caught the end. Andrew looked up and saw Spartan-248, Katy, looking down at him.

"Need some help?" Katy asked.

"I'd appreciate it, yeah." Andrew replied. Katy nodded and swung her end of the hammer around to slam into the Brute's abdomen. It growled and roared uncontrollably until Andrew lashed out an energy sword. The headless corpse fell down, and the Spartan stood up.

"Thanks." Andrew said.

"Anytime swabby." Katy grinned.

"This is Spartan-249, the LZ is secure, let the operation commence." Andrew reported over the COM. Overhead, several Pelican gunships flew through the hazy air of the once glorious city and landed. Ninety one Spartan-II Bs filed out… enough to take on an entire legion of the Covenant's best troops.

Andrew had read the files and stories about the previous Spartan-IIs, the fall of the military planet Reach with most of the Spartans defending it… and Spartan-117's battles alongside his remaining companions. The first generation of Spartan-IIs was an endangered species. As Andrew stared out at the ruined city of New York with his energy sword kept at ready, he knew that the second generation of S-IIs wouldn't become reduced to a small squad. Heck, they were the best of the best… what could happen?


	12. New chpt1

Chapter 1

1200 Hours, January 1, 2537 (Military Calendar)

Camp Kirkbride/ Planet CintoIV/ Currently in Training

Andrew squatted behind a large tree trunk holding his SMR (Sub Machine Rifle) at ready. The damn training instructors always enjoyed sticking him and the other ninety-nine 'would be' Spartans over bottomless pits, under heavy stun pellet fire, pinned down under huge boulders, and stopped by booby traps. Well soon they'd be getting the surprise of their lives.

Six pairs of booted feet crossed the grassy clearing, and the trap was sprung. Andrew heaved a single stun grenade into the midst of the instructors and three bodies fell down. Quick as lightning, the trainee jumped out of the underbrush to check the unconscious bodies… they were identified as Evan, Smith, and Cody, fellow trainees, but that meant that someone has their gun sights on them. A splattering of rubber stun bullets sprang out and hit Andrew full on in the chest making him fall to the ground. His entire midsection was numb.

"Cover fire!" Andrew shouted hoarsely. A string of flash bang grenades erupted from the undergrowth and exploded near the source of the fire. With the instructors blinded for the time being, Andrew rushed to his enemy's positions and planted an entire clip of stun rounds into the instructors. Five bodies fell, and Andrew stuck a red 'KIA' flag on each of them. Behind him, two others, Katy and Philip, rushed to the three immobile trainees.

"They're fine." Katy reported as Cameron planted 'KIA' flags on them. "Maybe you should actually see the enemy before you shoot them."

"Sorry, I guess I haven't been paying attention to the chief." Andrew replied. He nudged Evan in the head with his boot, and started off in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, we need to take the fight to the instructors." Cameron said. "Let's give them a little payback." The three trainees disappeared in the jungle canopy.

Moaning and groaning in pain, the one hundred, fifteen year old trainees gathered into the lunch room. After a full night of fighting, and a morning of losing, the 'would be' Spartans sat down and watched the winning instructors chow down on roast chicken, brownies, ice cream, pizza, mangos, apples, and other mouth watering foods.

One more day until the augmentation process, and the trainees were still being starved.

"Well at least we'll be able to get a lot of food to eat before they cut us open." Cody said cheerfully.

"Nah, we can't eat anything for twenty-four hours before the surgery. They don't want any chewed up sandwiches in the way." Monica grumbled. After an hours of watching the instructors gorge ravenously at the food, the trainees headed back to their quarters where they washed of the dirt and sweat that was caked on to their bodies.

"Get some sleep everyone." Andrew yawned. "Besides, it might be good to get some practice in, in case we end up sleeping forever tomorrow…

There… who were they? They seemed to be going through the same thing he was as well. Hmmmm… there, his name is Kyle, and there was Monica sitting next to Katy. Evan is lying unconscious on the floor since he slipped on his own barf. Smith and Cody are laughing at his prone form. Someone is trying to talk to me… Cameron and Philip. What was my name? Drew… A drew… Andrew. Yeah, my name is Andrew. What happened? Augmentation… must be the side effects…

Andrew sat shakily onto a cushioned bench as the rest of the Spartans filed in, slipping and stumbling. Cleaning bots went by mopping up the fluids that many coughed up. If this was being a true Spartan, Andrew didn't like it that much.

"The dizziness and fatigue are just side effects." A nurse said. "Different chemicals have entered your body, and it is just trying to adjust to them. Your bones are reinforced with titanium alloy, all your senses greatly improved. The side effects should wear off in a day of two."

"You are all lucky." The lead instructor added. "Your previous Spartan-IIs had casualties due to the augmentation. You guys got out with zero casualties. Once you all get your armor, you all will be full bred Spartans."

0400 Hours, March 15, 2540 (Military Calendar)

Camp Kirkbride/ Planet CintoIV/ Currently in Training

The armor was shiny, real shiny… and cool looking too. The visor of the new MJOLNIR battle armor was slightly larger, and patches of silver were placed around the suit as well, they housed micro shield generators that allowed the Spartan to activate a strong, but limited overshield. The shoulder plates were a foot long, and the 'power pack' on the back of the armor was roughly a meter high.

"These new MJOLNIR armor systems allow the user to make an overshield as well as a small backup force in case the main shield fails. The suit amplifies sight, strength, smell, speed, and all that good stuff. Injectors in the suit pump bio-foam, wake up stims, etc. With this suit, you're pretty much a walking fortress." A tech announced proudly. Once Andrew put on his teal colored armor, he heard a bloodcurdling scream.

"You bastards! Why is my armor pink!??! I asked for red armor!!!!" Evan shrieked as he shoved a bright pink MJOLNIR helmet into the tech's face pointing wordlessly at it in sheer and uncontrollable anger.

"Sorry!" A technician apologized. "Pink was all we had left!" Andrew chuckled and turned to the rest of the Spartans, who were waiting patiently in rows in their assorted colored armor. One- hundred Spartans… bred for battle and impossible to beat.

"Okay, just in from high command, we're all promoted to Lieutenant, 3rd class. Though, Kyle, Katy, you guys are 2nd class."

"Sweet!" Katy grinned.

"Being the CO of this generation of Spartans, I'm Lieutenant 1st class. If anybody has any objections, let's all hear it now." Andrew said. Everyone remained quiet besides Evan, who was still shrieking his head off.

"No objections? Okay, let's all head on to the UNSC Cruiser: Socrates."


	13. Chapter 2 reb point

Chapter 2 – 'Rebel Point' Part I

1200 Hours, February 1, 2552 (Military Calendar)

UNSC Cruiser: Socrates/ Debriefing Room

"Smashing attacks from both Covenant and Rebel forces has the UNSC reeling back." The captain of the Socrates said, "By now, we are dangerously low on supplies and money. ONI has located a large scale Rebel supply base somewhere in the Sol II system and is asking you Spartans to infiltrate the base, get a hold of all the minerals, ore, credits, and anything we can use to keep building battleships."

"How can we transport all the 'booty' back to UNSC controlled space? These debriefing files say there's over 1.5 million tons of ore and minerals just waiting to be made into ships." Evan asked.

"Well Mr. Pink, if you'd read the files, you'd actually see that all the items are stored in various captured ships: Civilian yachts, frigates, shuttles, UNSC cruisers, corvettes, destroyers, carriers… even a few Covenant ships. All stuffed to the brim with canisters filled with the things we need." The captain replied.

Andrew snickered slightly as Evan bowed his head down in shame, then he turned his eyes down to the data files. Apparently, he was to take in a squad to the base designated 'Rebel Point' via modified Longsword interceptors with stealth coating after being transported as close as possible by the Socrates. Then, the Spartans would land in their base and try to take over all their supply ships. After doing so, the Socrates would then launch its Pelican Gunships and Transports to attack the Rebel base. With any luck, the base would be captured by the UNSC and would possibly be able to help the UNSC with the war.

"Spartan-249, we need you to designate your team on this mission please." The captain asked.

Andrew looked around, ninety-nine other Spartans to choose from…

"Spartans- 217,223,248,250,254,266,277 and 283 are the ones I'll go with." Andrew replied after a moment's consideration. "Sorry to the rest of you guys."

_"You got a few of their Pincer-class fighters on your tail." _Katy reported over the COM. _"Spin a three sixty, I'll cover you." _Andrew did as he was told and spun his midnight black Longsword interceptor in a single loop as Katy's fighter launched a flurry of WASP fighter bullets at the rectangular Rebel Pincer fighter. The Rebel pilot tried to evade by cutting the engines short, but the female Spartan was a step ahead of him, the Pincer exploded into a fiery ball.

"Thanks for the assist." Andrew said. He turned his fighter into the plotted course through a small asteroid belt. Nine pitch black fighters melted into the midst of the rocks and soon reached 'Rebel Point'. It was large all right. Hangers, assorted capital ships, cranes… they were all attached to a large asteroid as though it has been painted on it.

"From here its jet packs only." Andrew whispered as he opened the Longsword's hatch and activated his MJOLNIR's jet pack. Together, the Spartans flew through the black of space leaving behind only tiny exhaust trails.

"There's the maintenance door." Someone muttered over the COM. Andrew looked through his visor and sighted a small indent on the huge Rebel base that could've let an average sized human in.

As one, the Spartans circled around the door and Katy floated towards the control panel.

"Just give me a few minutes to hotwire this thing." Katy said as she took out her datapad.

"A few minutes might be too long." Cameron warned. "Incoming Rebel spacers, I count twenty-four. They must've detected our exhaust trails when we flew in their radius. I'll jam their COM."

"They see us; four are making their way back to the base. Smith, Monica, try to snipe them. Cody, see if you can flank them. Cameron, Kyle, Evan, Philip… form up behind me. We're gonna take these bastards head on." Andrew ordered. Andrew pushed off the surface of the Rebel base and jetted towards the incoming Rebel troops as a total of four bullets shot past and turned the fleeing four Rebels into motionless corpses… floating dead in space. Andrew took out his Sub Machine Rifle and swung it ninety degrees to his left and fired at the nearest spacer. The Rebel shook violently for a few seconds and came to a standstill. Two other spacers saw their squad mate die, and shifted their old MA4As, the initial weapon of the MA series, and fired. Hundreds of bullets pounded Andrew's shields and his suit flared up like a small sun.

"Turn off your shields!" Kyle shouted over the COM. "The Rebels might pick you up! I'll cover you!" Andrew did as he was told and gave his jetpack a burst of energy. The Spartan fell well away from the line of fire and he returned some to his hunters. It was unlikely that he scored a hit, but it was just a distraction. Kyle had snuck up behind them and twisted both of the enemy spacer's necks.

WHOOSH! Two rockets ejected from Philip's rocket launcher and impacted into a small asteroid, a muffled burst of flames was quickly put out by the cold of space. Meanwhile, three Rebel spacers floated… lifeless. Monica slid past Philip's six and jumped off the asteroid they had taken position on. Bullets hit the Spartan head on but Monica was unfazed. Four shots exploded from Monica's sniper rifle and four more spacers fell, then she swung up and landed back on the asteroid as Philip fired another two rockets. This time, a scout droid exploded and the call was immediately intercepted by the Spartan.

"217 to 249, they're getting a bit nosy. I recommend we get the hell out of here as soon as possible." Philip reported.

Cameron threw his BR55 rifle like a javelin at a solitary spacer and was rewarded with the sight of a jetpack exploding. The Spartan retrieved the weapon and fired it at a small grouping of five Rebel spacers. Two of the spacers jerked back from multiple head shots while the rest quickly opened fire with their weapons. Cameron braced himself as a shower of bullets rained upon him. His shields were close to overloading when he activated his overshields. Soon, the Rebels ceased fire and stopped to reload… when another Spartan appeared behind them. Cody lashed out and jammed a multiple knives into two of the spacers. The last panicked and tried to fly away when Cameron flew up and punched the spacer in the head. The dead Rebel's head hung limp. Four more to go…

"Spare me!" Evan pleaded as he cowered literally under a small space rock, "I have a family! Well, it mainly consists of me, myself, and I, but it's the thought that counts eh?" When the remaining four Rebel spacers had ganged up on the cowardly Spartan, Evan had tried to run. Instead, he tripped on a small ledge and was beaten up by the four spacers. One spacer activated a trio of plasma grenades and a single frag grenade. He stuck them onto of Evan's rock and the four spacers flew away. Evan exploded into a shower of freeze dried guts and organs.

"Wow, how cruel." A spacer chuckled… then his head exploded… followed by his companions. Smith held his sniper rifle out with the barrel still smoking.

Katy bit her lower lip as she entered a decrypt code into her datapad. She was unaware of a recon droid that was behind her. Its communications was jammed, and the Spartan was the source of it. A thin, flat blade protruded from the left side of the machine, mostly used to slice into areas that they couldn't get into. But it would be handy to kill the meddlesome UNSC soldier. The machine activated the slicer and held it at the Spartans neck, ready to stab…

Andrew jumped behind Katy with his overshields flaring and blocked the slicer. His overshields rapidly shrank down to a mere trickle of regular shields when Katy pumped multiple shots from her shotgun into the droid's slicer arm. It fell off and the droid tackled both Spartans and sent Andrew and Katy slamming into the rocky surface of the Rebel base. They tried to get up when the droid came up again until two rockets flew through space and hit the droid dead on. There was a muffled explosion and the force of the blast sent the two Spartans flying through the air.

"Katy?! Katy?! C'mon, get up." Andrew shouted hoarsely. Kyle, Cameron, Monika, Smith, Philip and Cody circled around Andrew and the motionless figure of Katy. There was a small _hiss _as the suit's wake up stimulants was injected into Katy. Behind the Spartan's visor, Katy's eyes fluttered open. She coughed slightly and sat up.

"I'm okay Andrew, wha-, what happened?" Katy asked.

"Philip fired a pair of rockets into the droid; it exploded, and knocked you out. All that matters is that you're okay." Andrew replied; relief was thick in his voice. Katy and Andrew stared lovingly into each other's eyes past their visors.

"Oh yeah? What about Evan? He exploded!" Smith intrudingly pointed out.

"Meh, he always manages to resurrect after he's killed. Watch, he's gonna appear sooner or later." Cameron said a matter of factly. Sure enough, a pink helmet appeared from under a nearby pile of rock.

"Hey guys! We sure showed them eh?" Evan cheered. He pulled his body out of the rock and was about to take a step towards the rest of the Spartans when a comet slammed into the human and flattened him like a pancake.

"Okay… uh, Katy, do you think you can finish working on the door? My oxygen regenerator is starting to dilute, we need to get into a life supported area fast." Monica said.

"Sure," Katy curtly replied. She walked over to the control panel and added a few last digits into it. After pulling out a single bronze wire, the door hissed open. "After you." Inside, Evan was sitting on the floor directly in front of the doorway.

"That was the easy part," Andrew reported when all nine Spartans had made their way into the Rebel base. "The hard part is about to come…"


	14. Chapter 3 Reb Point Part II

Chapter 3 – 'Rebel Point' Part II

0130 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base

"The best place to make a CP should probably be located in an armory. Katy, find us a good armory." Andrew whispered as he threw away his warped and twisted SMR and pulled out his SMG.

"I'm checking." Katy replied. She connected her data pad to a nearby COM port in the cramped maintenance access room. The nine Spartans that had been sent to infiltrate the Rebel base had made it inside, now they needed to carry out the second part of the mission: establish a command post. "There are several armories located throughout this base. Seventy-five percent of them are located near hangars and escape pods. The last quarter are scattered around the inner part of the base."

"My guess is that we'd need to pick an armory near a hangar… or one near our mission objective." Kyle stated.

"Right, there is one that I say is the best. It has only three ways in or out, and it is right outside an escape pod hatch which we view as our emergency escape route. One of the entrances leads to an outer corridor while the other leads to the hanger… where three of the ships we plan to steal are docked." Katy reported.

"Let's get to it then." Andrew said.

"Hold it. Right outside this door is a fighter hangar. No doubt there is a full squad of pilots and military personnel who have been alerted to keep watch for anything strange after our tussle outside."

"Damn it!" Andrew cursed. "Smith, Monica… you guys need to head through that door first and lay down a sheet of lead at those bastards. Cody, Cameron, head through second and kill the rest with you knives or something. Make it quiet, or else the entire base will be brought around our ears quicker than planned. The rest of us will serve as backup."

Almost immediately, Cody and Cameron took up positions on either side of the door. Cody had his _Saber_-class bayonet drawn. It was made out of a rare alloy that had been found in an asteroid belt off the Sol system… and it could cleanly slice its way through diamond hard titanium alloy, and diamonds themselves. Along with a seemingly unlimited amount of titanium alloy daggers, a silenced pistol, a modified sniper rifle, and a very loud shotgun, Cody was prepared for a lot of fighting.

Cameron preferred to use medium to close ranged one-hit-K.O. weapons. He had a V6D pistol that acted as a mini shotgun. It fired like a shotgun and almost looked like a shotgun. Everything was the same as a shotgun except it didn't need to be pumped, reloaded one shell at a time, and was pistol sized. His other weapons were a BR55 rifle as well as two SMGs.

Smith and Monica prepared to move in. Both had extensively modified their sniper rifles and didn't need spotters. They were ace shots and could shoot an inch wide and long credit chip at over three-thousand meters. Both Spartans checked their weapons to make sure that they were loaded and ready to fire. Then, Cameron punched a button near the door… it opened. Quick as lightning, the two snipers lashed through the door and fired a volley of ten specially hardened bullets at the enemy Rebels.

They had come up in a walkway just above the hangar so they had full view of the twenty-four Rebels below. Nine Rebel's heads exploded while the last ducked behind a _Pincer_-class fighter. The wasted bullet ricocheted off the hardened plating.

Next, Cody and Cameron swiftly ran through the door and leaped down from the walkway. The Spartans ran through the hangar slicing through Rebels with their knives and pumping bullets into enemy bodies. Monica and Smith ran their sniper rifles through the hangar; shooting every Rebel that was about to pull a trigger of their weapon. Soon, all twenty-four Rebels were lain out across the hangar.

"Cameron, cover the entrance door to the hangar. Smith, hold your position on the walkway. Everybody else, get ready to move through that door." Andrew whispered through a COM channel. The other Spartans complied and soon they were all positioned at the door.

"We have two options. One, we head through a military training room and have a faster route to the armory but lose whatever chance of surprise we have, since there are reports of infiltration all over this place. The entire base is in threat level orange." Katy said. "Or, we head through a lot of winding corridors until we get to the armory."

"Going through the training room would be like walking into a meat grinder, and going through the corridors would mean that our supplies would slowly be depleted and we'll be chipped away from front and back… and sometimes side to side." Evan whimpered.

"We'll take the corridors. Our training room had turret emplacements in every nook and cranny." Andrew said. "Let's go."

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Cameron hit the 'open' button for the door, and Evan stepped through. Evan's head also exploded and his body completely shredded by a lethal rain of hardened bullets.

"Damn! We only got the one who always reincarnates!" A Rebel cursed… right before his shotgun was wrenched out of his hands and his head was pummeled by Philip's fist.

"Evan's… blood… got… on… me…." Philip whispered angrily. "I JUST POLISHED MY ARMOR!!!!!!!!!" The Spartan pulled the pins off two fragmentation grenades and chucked them at the manned turret emplacement on his left. But Philip didn't know about the turret on his right… as well as the two Rebels running towards him with their shotguns ready. Suddenly, Kyle leapt through the door and took a small burst of turret fire on his armor. Then, he charged towards the Rebel manning the turret and wrenched his enemy's arms off.

"AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The Rebel screamed as he gazed at his two bloody stumps. Kyle chuckled and started beating the Rebel with the Rebel's own arms. Finally, when Kyle got bored, the Spartan wrenched the turret out of the floor and shredded the Rebel. Then, Kyle turned towards the other two Rebels and started towards them. The Spartan barely noticed the shotgun pellets splashing over his armor because he grabbed his assailant's head and rapidly twisted it around until the head gave out.

The other Rebel was so horrified about what happened to his comrade, that he didn't even make a noise as Kyle reached out, plunged his hand into the Rebel's chest, and pulled out his ribcage… lungs and all.

"Uhhhhhhh…." Philip said as he gazed at the pool of blood Kyle was standing knee deep in. "Nevermind…."

"We'll get ripped to shreds if we travel through this place in a single group." Cameron stated. "My guess is that we need to split up in groups of three so there'll be a lesser chance of all of us getting killed."

"Good thinking, Katy and I will go on ahead and link up with Evan, wherever he respawned. Kyle, you, Philip, and Monica better head down that way while the rest of you go the other way." Andrew said. "Katy, could you upload the directions into all of our HUDs?"

"I already did." Katy replied.

"Great, see all of you at the armory." Andrew said.


	15. Chapter 3 Part III

Chapter 3 – 'Rebel Point' Part III

0200 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ En route to Armory W-4

Katy cycled the bullets in her MA5K while Andrew aimed his SMG down the corridor. The Spartan made a series of hand signals, and Katy reacted. Katy ran swiftly past the two manned turrets, the six Rebel troops holding .30-caliber machine guns, and dropped a single flash-bang grenade behind her.

A flash of light appeared, and the Rebel troops came under fire from two sides. Andrew's SMG burped sixty rounds into the two Rebels manning the turret and Katy emptied her MA5K into three of the six Rebel troops. The remaining three Rebels turned their .30-calibers on the Spartan when they lost their legs. Andrew's commandeered .30-caliber machine gun was still smoking as he dropped it on the floor. Katy drew her M6 pistol and shot each Rebel in the head. The two Spartans continued on until they ran into Evan, who was running from a pair of Rebel troops. Katy's MA5K stuttered, and two bodies fell.

"Take this." Andrew said as he tossed an M6 pistol to Evan.

"Thanks." Evan replied. Soon, the three Spartans had made it directly in front of their destination. The only problem was that there were twelve, specially armored Rebels standing guard… or, waiting for the Spartans.

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0210 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ Command Center

Sergeant Mason, the Rebel Special Operations Assault Squad leader, or SPOAS, stood in front of the Rebel Nation's Admiral, Admiral Wooten.

"We're all fighting against a common enemy Admiral! Why fight against the UNSC when we could join them?! Call off your Spartan-Hunter teams and we could have an alliance with the UNSC by tomorrow." Sgt. Mason reasoned. The Admiral looked at the Spartan-Hunter schematics. They were very much identical to the standard UNSC Spartan, except instead of arms and legs, they had solid titanium-alloy prosthetics. Every bone had been replaced by metal, and every one of the five human senses enhanced by chemicals. They wore armor that was in every way superior to the MJOLNIR and even had captured Elite armor fused into it, so they even had energy shields. Of the six-hundred candidates, four hundred-eleven had died during the augmentation process, and one hundred-twelve in the armor testing stages. Only seventy-seven remained, and all were dispatched to kill the meddlesome UNSC Spartans.

"You're sounding a lot like a UNSC spy." Wooten growled. "Destroying the Spartans would mean an end to frequent raids and casualties to the RN. I'm gonna do whatever I can to destroy them, so hold your tongue or I'll kill you right here and now."

Mason couldn't control his anger. For years the Admiral had sent SPOAS on practically suicidal missions with insufficient equipment and kept on deducting their pay. Once, he even sent a Pelican Gunship to 'cover' SPOAS. The order killed two of Mason's men. "No, I will not hold my tongue you son of a bitch. As CO of SPOAS, we hereby succeed from the Rebel Nation." Mason drew his M6 pistol, "And, that makes you a hostile." He fired, an armored hand made of steel and flesh blocked the fired projectile.

The Admiral's two S-H guards held top-of-the-Covenant-line Beam rifles as well as two M6D pistols. They fired their Beam rifles and dual lances of plasma danced over Mason's head. Sgt. Mason was a crack shot, but he knew he couldn't penetrate their armor head-on. The SPOAS leader took cover behind a nearby computer terminal and couldn't do anything as Admiral Wooten strolled outside the room.

"I'll get you Wooten!" Mason shouted. _But first I have to get past these bastards._ He thought. Mason poked his head out and sighted the two S-Hs. A lance of plasma splashed near his head. There were several unarmored joints, above the thighs, behind the knees, the elbows, the armpits, and…

_The neck! _Mason grinned. He aimed his pistol and put multiple rounds into one S-H's neck. The second put a beam a millimeter above Mason's head, so the Sergeant withdrew. The second S-H had tucked his chin down, so a second shot to the neck would be useless. The helmet would successfully block any bullet. The knee, elbow, and armpit joints would be useless, since they were all metal. Above the thighs, Mason knew that there had been no modifications to the groin area, luckily for the S-Hs, so Mason opened fire. The S-H screamed in pain and fell.

Mason cheered and planted a bullet in the armored figure's neck. Then, he commandeered the S-H's ammo. The Sergeant pondered his two choices, either link up with his team, or chase the Admiral. For all he knew, Wooten was a coward and would've sent a full _squad_ of S-Hs to defend him. So, Mason rushed to link up with his team.

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0210 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ Armory W-4

_"SPOAS has betrayed our nation, kill them on sight." _A voice sounded over a loudspeaker. Andrew didn't know what SPOAS was, but he did know that the armored figures would present a _huge _obstacle. Andrew, Katy, and Evan crouched behind a pair of power conduits and waited for the rest of the team.

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0200 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ En route to Armory W-4

Monica was blown off her feet as a fragmentation grenade exploded inches in front of her. The Spartan's armor saved her, but three of the twelve Rebel troops advanced to her prone figure. Kyle slid out of his cover, planted shotgun pellets all over the three Rebels, and Monica fired her two M6 pistols. Four bodies tumbled to the ground. The remaining five opened fire and bullets shattered on the Spartans' armor.

Meters away, however, Philip popped out from a corridor and fired his last rocket. The ensuing explosion ripped through the last five Rebels and allowed the three Spartans to make their way to armory W-4. They met up with Katy, Andrew, and Evan. The six Spartans waited silently for Cody, Cameron, and Smith.

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"Twenty-four Rebels against us three? I feel sorry for those guys." Cody grinned.

"Okay, we'll split it up, eight for each, okay?" Cameron asked.

"That's fine with me. Last one to kill their eight is a rotten, dead, and still rotting Grunt." Smith replied. The sniper swung his sniper rifle and leapt out of cover to face eight of the twenty-four Rebel troops who were guarding the main corridor. He switched his sniper rifle to an auto-fire mode and emptied his extended clip of five bullets. Four Rebels fell, and Smith drew his trusty Sub-machine gun. The other side of the corridor was filled with bullets and eight bodies littered the floor.

Meanwhile, Cody plunged his Saber-class knife into one Rebel's back, cut his spine, and let the body drop. Just as quickly, Cody had his silenced M6 pistol drawn, stabbed his knife through one Rebel's head, and used his pistol to kill five other Rebels. The last turned around, saw the Spartan, and committed suicide.

Cameron presented himself to one Rebel, and the trooper reached out with his SMG. Cameron, however, grabbed the man's forearm, and pointed it in the direction of the other seven Rebels. The first Rebel fired a split second later, seven Rebels were shot to death before the first Rebel let go of the trigger, and Cameron wrung his neck.

The three Spartans met up with the rest of the team, still quietly arguing about who won.

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0210 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ Armory W-4

Together as one, the nine Spartans opened fire on the twelve Spartan-Hunters. Bullets pounded the S-Hs' armor, but when the assault ended, there wasn't even a scratch on their armor. The S-Hs returned fire with their Covenant beam rifles; they fired twice. Twenty-four plasma beams flew through the air and towards the Spartans. Seven beams splashed across Smith's chest, and while four were reflected by the MJOLNIR's reflective coating, the rest penetrated and one even went through his heart. Smith died instantly.

"SMITH!!!" Somebody roared. It was Evan, and he made the first kill in his life. Evan aimed a captured .30-caliber machine gun and fired its full one hundred-twenty clip into one S-H, and multiple lucky shots splattered through his neck. But, just as the S-H dropped, twelve more turned the corridor, and _another _twelve came through a door. They shot Evan, and the Spartan dropped.

The Spartans were outnumbered, and there was practically no way they could win. A meter to his left, Andrew spotted Katy unloading her MA5K and M6 pistol on a trio of S-Hs. The remaining thirty-five S-Hs opened fire with overcharged plasma pistols and beam rifles.

"KATY!!! Watch out!" Andrew shouted. He lunged into her and knocked her down as a tidal wave of plasma flew through the air. Katy winced as plasma heated her armor, and Andrew fell as an overcharged plasma pistol projectile landed across his chest. On her TEAMBIO, Andrew's vitals were flatlined. Tears poured through Katy's eyes as she stared unbelievingly at Andrew's prone form. He had been the man she loved… and the Rebels would pay.

Katy stood up with her MA5K and she started to scream angrily. She fired her MA5K until it ran out of ammo. Then, she grabbed the dead S-H's beam rifle and kept on shooting it until it ran out of energy… and seven S-Hs lay dead. Finally, one Spartan-Hunter returned fire with his beam rifle. The purple beam flew through the air and impacted on Katy's stomach. The Spartan doubled over as her breath was knocked out of her. The S-H fired again, this time shooting Katy's head. Plasma reflected off Katy's visor, though her HUD winked off, and the Spartan fell… unconscious.

With nothing else to do, or, nothing that they _could_ do, the surviving Spartans ran for it. Monica and Philip stood by the door to the armory and started to lay down a sheet of covering fire. The other Spartans collected Katy's, Andrew's, Smith's, and Evan's bodies and hurried through the door. Once inside, the door flew shut… and the remaining Spartans caught their breaths….


	16. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Setting up HQ

0220 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ Armory W-4

Cameron hadn't noticed, but as he sat down catching his breath, he saw that a plasma beam had penetrated his armor and created a fist sized cavity on the right side of his chest. There was a lot of internal bleeding, but no vital organs had been damaged. The Spartan took a look around the armory and saw the other seven remaining Spartans slumped around four bodies.

Spartan-248, Katy, was unconscious. The impact of a beam rifle projectile gave her a minor concussion, but nothing serious.

Spartan-254, Evan, didn't really count as a casualty since he always managed to resurrect himself each time he was killed.

Spartan-233, Smith, was dead. Shot in the heart by a plasma beam, he had been the Spartan sniper CO and had been a good friend. Though he was usually quiet, the Spartan always cracked a joke to raise the moral of his teammates. Cameron was thankful that Smith had died immediately after being shot.

Spartan-249, Andrew, had been the Commanding Officer of the entire generation of Spartan-II Bs. He was killed by an overcharged plasma bolt fired from a plasma pistol, and the bolt had melted straight through his armor and shattered most of the bones in his solar plexus. He had been a good leader, and he always made sure that his team got through every mission alive, with the exception of Evan.

Cameron limped past a table that was stacked high with Covenant weapons and found a trio of medical lockers. Two lockers had med kits, the other had biofoam canisters. Cameron grabbed a biofoam canister and filled himself up with the stuff. Then, he took a med kit and closed off the cavity with some battle dressings and a liquid sealer. Then, after replacing his armor, Cameron passed some med packs to the others.

Cody had been shot by a .30-caliber machine gun, and three bullets had lodged themselves in his thigh. The Spartan removed them with a pair of tweezers and sealed the holes up with biofoam.

Philip had dislocated one arm, so Kyle helped straighten it out.

Out of the nine Spartans, only Monica and Kyle made it out of the battle with the Spartan-Hunters unfazed. Monica helped Katy up and injected her with a stimulant.

"Hey, this escape pod has six cryo pods. We should put Smith and Andrew in there for now. We might have a chance of reviving them when we get back to UNSC grounds." Monica whispered to Cameron after making sure Katy was okay.

"Right; Kyle, Philip, help us." Cameron ordered. Kyle was a higher ranking lieutenant than Cameron, but he nodded solemnly and helped carry the two dead Spartans into separate cryo pods. The bodies froze, nobody said a word.

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0230 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ Armory W-4

Katy laid out every single weapon type she could find on the floor. There were three types of pistols: the M6, the M6C, and the M6C. There were also sub-machine guns, MA5Bs, MA5Ks, M90 shotguns, sniper rifles, M19 SSM rocket launchers, four boxes of .30-caliber machine guns, and a dozen crates of fragmentation grenades. There were even twenty standard deployable turrets, and two M68 gauss cannons which had been wrenched off a Warthog.

For the Covenant weapons, and there was no shortage of them, there were standard plasma pistols and rifles, needlers, Covenant carbines, beam rifles, one fuel rod cannon, and three crates of plasma grenades. After searching around the room, Katy found a box that carried a dozen Covenant energy swords, eighteen portable plasma turrets, and a trio of turrets that had been taken off Covenant Spectres.

Each Spartan chose his or her own assortment of weapons, and all sidearmed energy swords.

Katy grabbed an MA5K, a beam rifle and a dozen fragmentation grenades. Then, she took a plasma pistol. The S-Hs seemed to be vulnerable to plasma weaponry, so no doubt the weapon would be effective.

Kyle chose an M90 shotgun, an MA5B assault rifle, one M6D pistol, four fragmentation grenades and four plasma grenades.

Monica had her own modified sniper rifle, so she just took one MA5K and a trio of plasma grenades.

Cameron had a particle beam rifle, a shotgun, four fragmentation grenades, and; another energy sword. The Spartan had never used the weapon before, so he also sidearmed it.

Cody still had his trusty _Saber_-class knife and a shotgun, so he just took a plasma rifle and an assortment of grenades.

Philip took the single fuel rod cannon, one rocket launcher, two M6C pistols and a dozen of each grenade. The Spartan also searched for more fuel rod ammo and found thirty more rods.

Once Evan respawned, he chose to take two plasma pistols, one SMG, and six fragmentation grenades.

Kyle was in charge of fortifying the armory, and it was about the size of Covenant ship's control room. There were three ways in or out, one door led to the corridors, one to a large hangar, and one to an escape pod. Kyle moved all the weapon tables to make simple barricades, and all the weapons were taped to the back of each. There were a total of forty-three turrets, but Kyle only used ten: four Human turrets, four plasma turrets, and the two gauss cannons.

Two of each type of turret had been placed one each side of the two doors. And a gauss cannon had been placed in front of each door so the formation of all the turrets combined looked like a big L.

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The Spartans still needed to get rid of all the S-Hs outside the armory so they could set up a primary defense, so Katy was going to lead a four man hit-and-run force.

Katy herself was going to go along with Monica, Cody, and Cameron. So while Kyle manned the gauss cannon and Cody, Evan, and Philip manned all the other turrets, Katy hit the 'open' button for the door and two S-Hs ran in.

They weren't able to fire a single shot because the second the door opened, Kyle fired the gauss cannon. Gauss cannons penetrated heavy armor real easily. A sustained assault on a Covenant Wraith tank by a gauss cannon would be able to rip through the thick armor like a katana on tissue paper. It worked the same on the S-Hs, and two mutilated bodies flew back like rag dolls.

Then, almost instantly, twelve more S-Hs boiled in… and all fired their machine guns and beam rifles at Kyle. The Spartan instinctively tucked his head behind the gauss cannon turret's shield plating, and plasma and lead impacted harmlessly. Kyle's return fire, however, was the exact opposite. The 25mm projectile fired by the cannon exploded into one S-H and sent him flying. Three more cannon blasts effectively ripped through four more.

Meanwhile, Evan and Philip fired the three of the four smaller turrets. While the plasma fired from Evan's and Philip's turrets melted through the S-Hs' solid titanium alloy armor, Cody made the kill shots with his turret. Ultra-hardened bullets stabbed through thinned armor, and the squad of S-Hs was immediately reduced to a pile of armored corpses.

Evan went through the door and laughed, "Take this you ass-bleeps-!"He started to shoot the dead bodies with his plasma pistols. He didn't notice, however, the three Grunts that popped through a maintenance latch. The first Grunt, named Chuck Chuckk, roundhouse kicked Evan so hard that the Spartan went back in time, slammed through his past self, and went back again. The second Grunt, named Nor Norr, was so powerful that he had another fist under his beard instead of a chin. He ran up and repeatedly punched Evan in the stomach with _three_ fists so powerfully that Evan wilted into a pile of smashed body parts. The last Grunt, called Ris Riss, took a watermelon, ate it, and spat out the watermelon seeds so fast that he put machine guns to shame. Evan, also, was ripped apart by the lethal rain of watermelon seeds.

"Uh… where'd you Grunts come from?" Katy asked.

"We don't know," Chuck Chuckk replied, "author decided to take us from the prologue and kill Evan whenever he decides to."

Nor Norr walked up, "Chuck Norris Grunt Squad… AWAY!!!" The three Grunts flew through space and were joined by their leader, Chuck Norris. (I added the extra letters on the names because my computer put green lines under them, and I hate those green lines!)

"Jeez, that was stupid." Cody muttered.

Author's note: The entire part from where the '' symbol started and ended is not actually a real part of the fanfiction! It was just for fun. (And spread Chuck Norris jokes. My favorite is the watermelon seed joke.)

Katy kneeled by the entrance of the door and saw seven S-Hs standing guard, "My guess is that the other remaining seven are still out there, no doubt as an ambush team."

"Remember, we don't know how many of them there are. All we've seen are thirty-six of them." Monica replied.

Katy winced, and she looked back to the escape pod, "Thirty-six, and we've taken care of twenty-two. They don't stand much against heavy weaponry, don't they?"

"Still, a head on approach would be futile. We should take care of the ambush team first." Cameron stated.

"Right, I bet that they are just adjacent to these guys, so let's sneak behind them." Katy replied. Soon, the Spartans had taken a route that lead them right behind the other S-Hs. Two were guarding the ambush team's six; they knew who they were dealing with. Luckily, they still hadn't noticed the trio of Spartans.

Katy readied her beam rifle and looked through the scope, "The neck would be the best area to attack, but the plasma might burn out through the bastard and alert the others. I'll aim for this guy's chest. You might want to set the velocity on that thing a bit lower." Monica was a better marksman than Katy, but her human sniper rifle was weaker against the solid titanium alloy armor the Spartan-Hunters wore. Monica fired a muffled burst… and one S-H kneeled back. Katy fired, and the first shot melted straight through her victim's chest plating. She fired again, and this time the S-H dropped. The other five turned… and Monica and Katy fired like mad... it was time for revenge; bloody revenge. Three dropped under the sustained barrage, the other two S-Hs fired back. Then, the seven S-Hs who had been laid out as bait came. The amount of plasma and lead sent to the Spartans increased, then suddenly stopped altogether.

Cameron and Cody stood in the middle of the nine S-Hs, their energy swords dancing in the midst. Cameron waved both of his energy swords forward and cut through one Spartan-Hunter who screamed and fired his SMG uselessly in the air. Then the Spartan turned as three more S-Hs tried to pummel the Spartan at once. Cameron evaded the lethal blows and cut off each S-Hs' arms; the energy swords melted through the titanium alloy armor as though it was butter. Katy finished them off with her beam rifle.

Meanwhile, Cody had dual wielded his _Saber_-class knife and his energy sword and moved swiftly from one S-H to another. Monica covered him by landing bullets on some of them which made the S-Hs stumble whenever the hardened bullets hit. Cody took his knife and cleanly cut off half of one S-H's MA5B. Then, the Spartan sliced the Rebel's neck and turned to face the three others. Two ran forward while the third stood back. Cody had backed up to regain his composure when Monica fired three times. All the S-Hs were shot in the leg and all three stumbled… just the thing Cody needed. The Spartan cut through each of them and soon… all thirty-six Spartan-Hunters laid dead. None of the Spartans knew how many S-Hs there were, but they hoped that most of them had died.

_If there are more, _Katy thought, _I'm gonna' kill every single one of them. _She pushed some tears back, Andrew was dead… and he wouldn't come back.

The Spartans returned to HQ, and Kyle was waiting for them, "Hey guys, I've just called for reinforcements. We're going to bring this place down around our heads."


	17. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – The Blade of the Sangheili

1200 Units/ Ninth Age of Reclamation (Covenant Military Calendar)

Human Planet: Darathos/ Human Inner System: Unknown Classification/ Assault on Human Ground-to-Air Magnetic Accelerator Cannon/ Spirit Dropship

The assault force's vehicles consisted of ten Wraith mortar tanks, twenty Shadow ground transports, twenty-five Spectres, thirty Banshee scout fliers, and fifty Ghost scout vehicles. There were also five _Spirit_-class scout transports, and ten _Phantom_-class assault transports.

The infantry involved was no less numerous as there were over five-hundred Unggoy, two hundred-fifty Kig-yar, one-hundred Sangheili, and twenty-five pairs of Lekgolo.

Thirteen of the one-hundred Sangheili were currently seated in a _Spirit_-class transport and were currently heading towards the 'back door' of a Human Ground-to-Air Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. It was stationed on top of a heavily reinforced building made of duracreet, EMP hardened solid titanium alloy, and other Human substances. Surrounding three-fourths of the building was a large wall that was strung with Human defenses: turrets, tanks, barbed wire, and infantry. But the last side was facing directly off a cliff with only a low lying wall armed with automatic-turrets to hold off any invaders.

A Sangheili War Councilor named Ando Mormoslee sat onboard the dropship and went over the plan. First, the _Spirit_-class dropship will land over the wall and in the base. Its stealth plating would successfully make the turrets oblivious to the dropship. Then, all the Sangheili warriors but the pilot will be dropped off to disable the turrets for any future reinforcements and fight off any Human opposition inside the base. To make things even, since there would no doubt be Human vehicles in the five-kilometer long base, four _Phantom_-class dropships will arrive with a complement of Lekgolo and Wraith tanks. All of them would die, but for the Covenant cause.

Meanwhile, four of the Sangheili would infiltrate the compound to do three things: open the main gate so the force would be able to rush in the compound and destroy any defenses, disable the G-t-A MAC so the Covenant fleet above will have less to deal with, and capture any Human data that was worth noting… particularly the schematics of a Human orbital MAC gun.

Engagements in outer space with Human fleets that were reinforced with the orbital MAC guns were devastating to the seemingly unstoppable Covenant. Many good warriors died each time a ship was destroyed, so a way to sabotage the stations _before _the battle would save countless lives.

Ando's team sat by him:

Bordo Lignaraa, a hardened Sangheili veteran who fought countless battles alongside Ando was one of the best warriors the Covenant had. His best friend, Osama Binladen, was killed after a Human ship shot him with its MAC gun, and Bordo swore to avenge his death.

Just left to Ando sat Ordo Ignorslee, an honored Sangheili Minor. Ordo had saved the life of one of the High Prophets when a Kig-yar assassin tried to kill him. For Ordo's services, he was deemed an Elite Honor Warrior, and he was given a permanent overshield for his armor.

Lastly was Igna Orgnosla, a minor Zealot who had participated in the 'Taming of the Lekgolo' and managed to bring most of the Lekgolo race into the Covenant caste. The remainder of the Lekgolo who refused to join the Covenant was each personally killed by Igna. The Covenant Lekgolo still remembered the bloodshed caused by the Sangheili, so in order to prevent another war with the Lekgolo; he was demoted from Honorary Zealot to a minor Zealot.

Ando Mormoslee himself was a War Councilor, and he even wore the ceremonial Councilor armor as well. It was silver with a large plate-headdress. Ando even commanded his own Covenant Carrier: the _Fabled Prophecy_.

_"We are about to make landing, brace yourselves!" _The pilot warned. The _Spirit_ dropship landed, and the Sangheili exited. While Ando, Bordo, Ordo, and Igna activated their cloaking devices and ran to the base's entrance, the rest of the Sangheili fought. All of them were red-armored veterans, and in seconds the automatic turrets were disabled. Several units later, four dropships landed and each dropped off a Wraith and a pair of Lekgolo.

The small force was soon attacked by a pair of Human tanks and a group of Marines, but the view of the battle was obscured as the door close behind the four Sangheili. Ando checked a small holo-map of the building, and soon they'd be coming up on a large control room… filled with Human Marines.

Ando had a single plasma rifle, a plasma pistol, and an energy sword. He kept the plasma rifle out and held it single handedly. His other hand rested upon his grenade pouch.

Bordo Lignaraa held a Covenant carbine at ready, and his needler wasn't far from reach. On his back was a portable plasma turret. Strapped on his belt was an energy sword.

Ordo Ignorslee shouldered his favored beam rifle, and with two plasma pistols and an energy sword, he was ready for almost any opposition.

Igna Orgnosla dual-wielded needlers; and his Covenant carbine was slung on his back. His belt was filled with grenades, and amongst them was an energy sword. He guarded the team's six, but he longed to kill Humans.

Actually, all of them did. And they got what they wanted a unit later.

There were twenty-four Humans; ten of them were Marines who were armed with shotguns and MA5Bs, and the rest were technicians who had HE pistols. All of them were surprised when four Elites came into the room, and they rushed to draw their weapons.

By the time they had their weapons out and firing, eight of them were dead. Ando Mormoslee fired his plasma rifle methodically, aiming for any of the visible Marines and working his way to the technicians. The Marines posed the largest threat, but the technicians combined their fire. Bullets nearly ripped through Ando's shields, and the Sangheili took cover.

"Grenades! On my mark… NOW!" Ando shouted over the COM. Four plasma grenades flew through the air… and seven Humans died. Only nine Humans remained, and all of them were Marines.

Ando leapt onto a computer module and swept the area behind it with blue plasma fire. The two Marines hiding there burned and died. Next, Bordo fired his Covenant carbine at three more Marines who had emerged from their cover. Carbine rounds tore through the air and stabbed at the Humans, all of them died from multiple headshots.

Four were left, and Ordo activated his helmet's heat sensors. Two Human figures cowered behind a large holo generator, and the Sangheili opened fire with his beam rifle. The two beams burned through the machinery and gored the back of each Marine's heads. The last two Marines emerged from their cover and sprayed the area with bullets. Three of the Sangheili melted away to the shadows; Igna sprayed his needlers' needles at the enemy. Dual pink explosions followed as multiple needles latched on the Humans… and gore sprayed across the room.

"We can disable this wretched Human cannon from here," Ordo murmured. The Sangheili tapped some Human buttons and typed in a series of commands. Above, the MAC cannon stopped gathering energy for its next shot. Nearby, Ando tapped a few hard-learned Human symbols. A display camera showed the main gates opening… and five of the Covenant's Wraiths thundered in. The base was being stormed.

"Excellent, we shall now proceed to the base's 'Intel Storage Room', we need to do so quietly, or the Human vermin might try to erase all the files stored in it." Ando grunted. He activated his cloaking device, and the other Sangheili followed. All four Sangheili faded out of view.

Igna held his position in a Human elevator, waited for everyone to enter it, and pressed a button. The doors closed, and the lift elevated. Soon, the doors opened and revealed twelve Humans. All of them manned turrets, and between all of them was a door labeled 'ISR'. The group's destination was just beyond their grasp.

"Open fire Marines!" A sergeant yelled. The Marines fired their turrets, and a seemingly unstoppable wave of bullets knifed through the air and filled the elevator. Bullets ricocheted off the chrome innards, and some stray bullets found the Sangheili who were tucked away on either side of the door.

"Turn off your shields!" Ando whispered, "They might give us away!" The Sangheili complied, and soon the bombard ended.

"Pork! Huggins! Move up and check the lift." The Human sergeant ordered.

"Damn it sir, my name is not Pork! It's Stephen! Pork isn't even close to it!" One Marine chided. Nevertheless, the two Marines went cautiously up to the lift. The Sangheili crouched down and tried to make themselves as small as possible.

Both Marines had their weapons drawn, and Ando felt their eyes pass straight over him. They didn't shoot.

"All clear sir! Our boys downstairs must have cleared them out!" Huggins reported. All the Marines cheered, but nobody noticed Pork's and Huggins's bodies fall… nor the four energy swords floating in midair. They didn't even notice the primed plasma grenades set amongst themselves until it was too late. The grenades exploded, twelve Humans died. The Sangheili warriors were sprayed with gore and blood. Next to Ando, Igna grinned humorlessly.

Bordo tapped a button on a nearby display, and the door labeled 'ISR' slid open. Pellets fired from a Human shotgun rushed to greet them, but in one swift move Ando had leapt upon his attacker and cut the Human's neck. Ordo retrieved the needed data before the data banks exploded.

"A Human A.I.! I should have guessed." Ando rasped. "Let us leave this accursed base; we still have a battle to fight."

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Ando smiled as he stood onboard his Carrier, _The Fabled Prophecy_. The Covenant fleet fired, and the Human planet burned. Another death; another casualty. Enemy ships attempted to make one last stand against the fleet, they burned too. Soon, the wretched race will all burn, Ando would see to that.


End file.
